Interdisciplinary Class to Cover 'Health in the Workplace'

Kaitlin Gallagher

The Exercise Science and Management programs have created a spring 2021 offering of an interdisciplinary course called "Health in the Workplace." The combined-section course codes are EXSC 391V (Section 001) or MGMT 4103 (Section 002). This course will consider what wellness means from both occupational health and performance perspectives. While COVID-19 has prompted discussions on what it means to be healthy at work, it is by no means a new issue. This course's interdisciplinary focus will allow students from both a business and health background to come together in one class and learn from each other's perspectives. 

This course will be taught by Kaitlin Gallagher, whose research interests are occupational injuries to the neck and low back. Her interest in workplace health started as a student in a kinesiology co-op program. She originally wanted to be a physical therapist. While working as a physical therapy intern, she was exposed to many people treated for injuries related to their working conditions. Her next position was working in a Human Resource department as an occupational health intern, where she learned about how health and safety issues were managed day-to-day. From there, she began to research occupational health and ergonomics related to working in constrained and prolonged postures. Her current work continues to focus on this, with an expanded interest in creating meaningful change in the workplace. She learned that sustainable change requires collaboration between those in health and business.

Students can direct questions to Kaitlin Gallagher (kmg014@uark.edu). Students in the Sam M. Walton College of Business can get enrollment details by contacting John Delery (jdelery@walkton.uark.edu) for this course's MGMT section.

The class will be offered remotely 4:30-5:50 p.m. Monday/Wednesday.