What is MindWell?
MindWell brings together and shares information about psychological, subjective, and spiritual well-being, helping our community engage in experiences to promote fulfillment, creativity, personal relationships, and community engagement.
Have a question, concern, or an idea? We would like to hear about it!
Email us at: MindWell@ucla.edu
MindWell Leadership
Robert Bilder, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, MindWell Co-Leader
Dr. Robert Bilder is the Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Chief of Psychology at UCLA’s Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, and Director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity. His research has focused on the links between brain and behavior, using tools spanning genetics, neuroimaging, cognitive and other assessments of human behavior. He is particularly interested in studying dimensions of brain function to help eliminate artificial boundaries between mental illnesses, between health and disease, and between the brain mechanisms involved in exceptional and everyday creativity. Recently he has been engaged in the NIMH Research Domains Criteria initiative, examining reward circuits in the brain, and launched a National Neuropsychology Network with support from NIMH to share knowledge about assessments of brain functions. In 2020 he launched a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab that aims to develop an Arts Impact Measurement System. He also co-directs the MindWell pod within the Healthy Campus Initiative to concentrate on how we can support resilience, well-being and creative achievement at UCLA and beyond
Nicole Presley Green, Ph.D., Ed.M, MindWell Co-Leader
Dr. Nicole Green currently serves as the Senior Executive Director of UCLA Student Resilience and Mental Health Services. In her role she oversees Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the Campus Assault Resources and Education (CARE) program, which provides sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention and advocacy services, and the Resilience In your Student Experience (RISE) Center, which provides mental health and well-being education and prevention services for students. Dr. Green is a counseling psychologist who received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at the University of Southern California. She received her Ed.M. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and her BA in Psychology from UCLA. Her areas of interest include student resilience and academic success, particularly among students of color, African American family issues, and sexual assault, and intimate partner violence issues. Dr. Green is actively involved in the Organization of California Counseling Center Directors in Higher Education (OCCDHE).
Sydney Kong, (Student Development Life Specialist)
Sydney Kong graduated in 2 years from UCLA with a B.A. in Psychology Summa Cum Laude and Departmental Honors. During her time at UCLA, Sydney spent a year with Janet Tomiyama, Ph.D., in the DiSH Lab conducting independent research for her senior honors thesis. Her research focused on characterizing weight stigma resilience and understanding how weight stigma manifests in everyday life. She also presented her study as a poster at the UCLA Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference and will be presenting again in 2023 at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual convention. She spent this past summer in Israel interning for a start-up and exploring the country. She is very interested in improving mental health literacy and developing initiatives that promote psychological well-being for the UCLA community and beyond. In the future, she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology.
