Shifting tides of the pandemic have left UNLV faculty and staff feeling anxious and uncertain as they transition back to campus. Now, one woman has set out to change that through Rebel Reset, a series of wellness services dedicated to prioritizing their personal health.

“When you talk about mental health, when you talk about physical health, a lot of the resources go to students, which they should,” says Ericka Smith, vice president for human resources and chief people officer at UNLV. “But faculty and staff are often overlooked.”

After hearing about her colleague’s hardships during the pandemic, Smith wrote a grant proposal to UNLV’s budget office for the wellness programming that would become Rebel Reset. In it, she outlined that …

• It would be an outlet for the anxiety and grief caused by the pandemic.

• It would be a well-rounded menu of services targeting mental, physical and emotional health.

• It would involve chair massages.

“Luckily, everyone loved the chair massages, so that stayed in there,” Smith laughs, “but it extended.”

Smith partnered with the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine and its nutritionists to set up healthy cooking courses (and $30 gift cards to buy the ingredients). She worked with the UNLV Student Wellness Center and the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences to offer basketball and cardio kickboxing classes. She secured instructors to lead trauma recovery yoga. Smith even got approval to offer faculty and staff flexible work policies, a $750 child care grant and a $250 food assistance grant. “We’ve budgeted,” she says, “so it’s available to maybe 50 people. Those are 50 people that we’ll touch and be able to help recover and reset.”

And that should help everyone involved with UNLV’s campus, Smith says. “If the faculty and staff are feeling good and feeling appreciated, feeling like they have an outlet for their anxieties, feeling like they have people who care about them or institutions that care, then they will transfer that to the students,” Smith says.

Plans to extend Rebel Reset beyond December 31 will depend on funding, but Smith says she’s determined to “continue the spirit” of the program however she can, especially given the positive response she says Rebel Reset has received.

“People understand we’re not trying to erase or minimize what they’re going through,” Smith says. “We’re just trying to get them out to help support them as they go through whatever it is.”

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