Champion appointed Director of University Counseling Center

The Division of Campus Life is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Denisha Champion as the new University Counseling Center director, effective Feb. 1, 2023.

Champion joined the Counseling Center in 2009 and has served as a staff counselor, assistant director for programming and prevention, and most recently as associate director for community engagement. She has provided leadership for the Jed Campus program, campus-wide suicide prevention efforts, collaborated with Student Health Service as a participant in the Eating Assessment and Treatment Team (Eating and Body Image disorders), served on the Alcohol and Other Drug Task Force and completed the Koru course on Teaching Mindfulness to College Students. Last year she was awarded the Haynes Diversity Leadership Mentoring award.

Champion’s most notable accomplishment is the university class on Peer Leadership and Education which premiered this past fall as a for-credit course. She co-authored the course with Marian Trattner from the Office of Wellbeing and Bethany Miller from the Safe Office.

“Denisha has been a valuable member of the Wake Forest community for a very long time,” said Warrenetta Mann, Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellbeing. “I look forward to even more exciting contributions from her in this new role.”

As Director of the UCC, Champion will continue her work co-leading the “We are Wake” mental health initiative, which will debut this semester. This initiative is designed to expand capacity related to mental health in order to increase the consciousness of care on campus.

“I am thrilled and delighted to be selected for this role,” Champion said. “I look forward to continuing to work with my excellent colleagues in the UCC and ongoing collaborations with campus partners as we strive for optimal mental health for all WFU community members.”

The search committee for this role, which was chaired by Asheigh Hala, the Director of the Office of Wellbeing, included university campus partners, faculty and students.