The UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative Eudaimonia Award is an annual award to recognize members of the UCLA community, past or present, who exemplify Eudaimonia by living a life full of purpose and meaning. The UCLA HCI Eudaimonia Society highlights members of the UCLA community who, through their immense personal efforts, inspire others to seek Eudaimonic well-being.
2022 Eudaimonia Award Nominations are Now Open
What is Eudaimonia?
Aristotle distinguished hedonia, the brief, fleeting happiness derived from immediate satisfaction of drives, from eudaimonia, the sustained happiness that comes from living a life rich in purpose and meaning.
Core concepts of Eudaimonia include:
- Generosity
- Resilience and overcoming hardship
- Selflessness
- Dedication to the common good and society at large
- Inspirational
- Commitment to long-term goals in the face of obstacles
To learn more: Read Q&A with Dr. Joseph Raho, Clinical Ethicist at UCLA Health.
Award Description
The Semel Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI) Eudaimonia Award is an annual recognition award given to a member of the UCLA community past or present who exemplifies a life full of purpose and meaning.
This year our theme is: “Creating a Culture of Caring” which is to acknowledge UCLA community members who exemplify this theme, have committed to bringing good to society, and who build up community members through care, service and advocacy especially during the pandemic.
The 2022 Eudaimonia Award recipient will be honored in Spring on May 9th, 2022 (More details to come).
Eligibility
All members of the UCLA community- including alumni, students, staff, and faculty- are eligible for nomination. Nominations may be made posthumously. You may not nominate yourself for the Eudaimonia Award.
Nomination Process
Nominations for the 2022 Eudaimonia Award are NOW OPEN. Nominations are due February 28th, 2022 at 11:59 pm.
Complete the nomination form here!
2022 Keynote Speaker
Medell K. Briggs-Malonson, MD, MPH, MSHS
Dr. Medell Briggs-Malonson will be our 2022 Eudaimonia Keynote Speaker. She is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and Chief of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the UCLA Hospital and Clinic System. She is a critical member of the UCLA Health community working to promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity among staff, patients, and beyond. Throughout her career, Dr. Medell has seeked creative and collaborative ways to redesign the healthcare system to advance health equity particularly within diverse communities.
As someone with a plethora of experience within the world of academia and healthcare, she has become a nationally recognized speaker, advisor as well as a best-selling author. She has been awarded the 2015 Top Healthcare Professionals Under 40 from the National Medical Association, 2021 25 Under 45 from EMRA, and the Los Angeles Dodgers 2021 Healthcare All-Star.
Dr. Briggs-Malonson holds an undergraduate degree from UCLA, MD from Harvard Medical School, MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a MSHS from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. At Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she completed her emergency medicine residency training and served as chief resident.
Source: https://www.uclahealth.org/providers/medell-briggs-malonson
UCLA Eudaimonia Awardee Spotlight: Jeremy Zimmett
Eudaimonia Society Members
Eudaimonia In the News
Explore TEDxUCLA Talks on Eudaimonia
Redefine Happiness: The Brain Bases of Eudaimonia with Dr. Robert Bilder
How brain research suggests that the keys to eudaimonic well-being involves a strong commitment of effort to actions aligned with long-term values.
Attempt the Impossible with Dr. Bruce Chorpita
A breadth of findings from the science of learning, memory, and cognition align with principles in athletics to show the importance of effort and challenging one’s self.
2021 Eudaimonia Virtual Event & Speaker
Awardees
Lily Shaw was a UCLA Alumni, who sparked change in her community and empowered others to do the same. Lily was selected for her fearless advocacy around the increasing accessibility, community, and inclusivity of marginalized communities. While Lily is not here with us now, she is in our hearts and her legacy will continue to impact current and future UCLA generations.
Grant Cho is an undergraduate senior majoring in Sociology & Public Health. Grant was selected for his inspiring efforts in health mentorship, the empowerment of students, and his commitment to long-term goals in the face of obstacles. Grant is an example of how students can make a positive impact on the lives of many, both on and off-campus.
Featured 2021 Eudaimonia Awardee Speaker
Dr. Nicole Green
Dr. Nicole Green currently serves as the Executive Director of UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the Campus Assault Resources and Education (CARE) program, the Resilience In your Student Experience (RISE) Center and is a Co-leader of the MindWell Pod. Nicole was selected for her endless generosity, extreme selflessness, and inspirational commitment to advocacy around equity, diversity, inclusion, and well-being on campus.
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), the Association of University of College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) and Southern California Association of Black Psychologists (SCABPsi). Dr. Green is the recipient of the Minority Fellowship Program Award from the American Psychological Association.
2020 Eudaimonia Virtual Event & Speaker
Awardees
Michael Garafola was born in Staten Island, NY, and moved to LA in 1999. When he was young, he had a passion for sports and recreation, with the game of basketball being his true love. Tragically, at the age of 15, this life of an athlete came to a dramatic end as he was injured in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the mid-abdomen down. Almost 13 years later, this love for sports and specifically basketball was reborn as he became connected with an adaptive basketball league, which lead him to pursue his Therapeutic Recreation Certificate and was hired to run the Adaptive Program through UCLA Recreation. Michael helps UCLA students with disabilities discover the world of adaptive sports and co-founded the Angel City Games at UCLA, where athletes of all ages with various physical disabilities can try out new sports, compete at their current sports and learn from athletes competing at high levels.
Jeremy Zimmett is from the small community of Valley Center, CA, and is a current graduate student pursuing his master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences. During his time at UCLA, he has served on two different diversity councils, notably organizing a queer resource panel for all incoming graduate students. He has also served as a mentor for UCLA’s Graduate-Undergraduate Mentorship Program, a teaching associate for UCLA’s Academic Advancement Program, and as a board member for the Information Studies’ Student Governing Board. He has contributed greatly to the UCLA community by advocating for queer individuals, new students, first-generation students, and those who have been historically underrepresented in higher education.
Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernandez
Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernandez is the Eudaimonia 2020 Featured Speaker Awardee due to her commitment to social justice and contribution to the UCLA community. Dr.Hernandez is a professor of History, African American Studies, and Urban Planning at UCLA where she holds The Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History. She is also the Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. One of the nation’s leading experts on race, immigration, and mass incarceration, she is the author of the award-winning books, Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol (University of California Press, 2010), and City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles (University of North Carolina Press, 2017). City of Inmates recently won the 2018 James Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians, 2018 Athearn Prize from the Western Historical Association, the 2018 John Hope Franklin Book Prize from the American Studies Association, and the 2018 American Book Award. Currently, Professor Lytle Hernandez is the Director and Principal Investigator for Million Dollar Hoods, a university-based, community-driven research project that maps the fiscal and human cost of mass incarceration in Los Angeles. The Million Dollar Hoods team won a 2018 Freedom Now! Award from the Los Angeles Community Action Network. For her leadership on the Million Dollar Hoods team, Professor Lytle Hernandez was awarded the 2018 Local Hero Award from KCET/PBS and the 2019 Catalyst Award from the South L.A. parent/student advocacy organization, CADRE. In 2019, Professor Lytle Hernandez was named a James D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow for her historical and contemporary work.
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