{"id":254305,"date":"2026-10-15T09:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=254305"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:48:22","slug":"building-community-within-the-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/10\/building-community-within-the-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Community Within the Workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn Health has a group of employees who have committed to an additional role: that of \u201cambassador.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office of Professional Well-Being and Engagement started the Ambassador Program in 2024, and celebrated its ambassadors with a pinning ceremony Oct. 7, midway through Employee Appreciation Week.<\/p>\n

\"group<\/a>
UConn Health has 36 employees in its Ambassador Program, many of whom attended a pinning ceremony during Employee Appreciation Week, Oct. 7, 2026. (Photo by Taylor Giorgetti)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ambassadors attend meetings monthly, take part in professional development sessions quarterly, build connection by promoting events and programming in their work area, and collaborate on community impact projects.<\/p>\n

\"outdoor<\/a>
From left: David Miner, Laura LaRosa, and Kara Wright are three of the ambassadors in UConn Health\u2019s Ambassador Program. (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a program that highlights community, it highlights impact and ways in which you can really get involved with UConn Health outside of your everyday responsibilities,\u201d says Kara Wright, a patient access training specialist who\u2019s been an ambassador for nearly a year. \u201cThere are so many different people from different departments who come in, you can learn from them, grow from them, understand different aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alison O\u2019Connor is an education and development specialist in the Office of Professional Well-Being and Engagement, a division of UConn Health\u2019s Human Resources Department. She says the original vision for the Ambassador Program was to bring together employees from different locations, divisions and backgrounds to create a community that promotes and supports employees and a sense of belonging and connection outside their regular job titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s come of that is a strong and engaged group of employees that\u2019s continuously growing,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. \u201cThe difference and impact of this community stretch beyond what we thought was capable. We\u2019ve had time to learn about each other, grow closer, and continue to build and promote a culture of belonging together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura LaRosa, a coding and documentation integrity manager, has been with the Ambassador Program since its inception.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it is like, \u2018What can I do to help move UConn forward?\u2019 I\u2019ve been here 14 years, in different roles,\u201d LaRosa says. \u201cHow can I help contribute to the positivity and the growth?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"four<\/a>
From left: Robyn Roark, David Miner, Laura LaRosa, Jill Hebert, and Alison O\u2019Connor recite the Ambassador Pledge during UConn Health\u2019s Ambassador Program pinning ceremony Oct. 7, 2026. Hebert, one of the program\u2019s liaisons, describes the pledge as \u201can honor that represents the Ambassadors\u2019 shared responsibility to bring colleagues together, celebrate diverse perspectives, foster a welcoming and supportive workplace, and contribute positively to the UConn Health community.\u201d (Photo by Taylor Giorgetti)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O\u2019Connor and colleague Jill Hebert, engagement and well-being specialist, are the liaisons for the Ambassador Program, which now has 37 ambassadors. They say the pinning ceremony will happen annually to celebrate the new ambassadors who\u2019ve joined and to give them a pin to wear to the programming they support to symbolize their role in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize the work of the group, often behind the scenes,\u201d Hebert says. \u201cThe pinning celebrates the helpers, dedicated to our mission of celebrating and connecting others.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Miner, an information technology project manager, also goes back to the start of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always found getting involved is the best way to understand an organization,\u201d Miner says. \u201cTo me, it was another opportunity to network and to understand all the other nuances outside of project management or the projects that get done in the IT sphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaRosa says the program enables more voices to be heard when it comes to organizing recognition events and other employee engagement efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we celebrate UConn, there are certain folks who are inadvertently left out \u2014 not because there was any intention to leave them out \u2014 like a nurse who has patients on an inpatient unit can\u2019t just say, \u2018Oh, guys, I\u2019m going to go to Pumpkin Palooza,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cSo it\u2019s our opportunity to give feedback for those people, that when they\u2019re organizing stuff, we can say, \u2018Wait, what about third shift?\u2019 Or \u2018What about some of the docs who literally don\u2019t get a second?\u2019 How can we get the celebration to them?\u201d<\/p>\n

In that way, ambassadors can be the voice of the people, having a say in planning events for the UConn Health community, Wright says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to help people, and the ambassador program is so collaborative,\u201d she says. \u201cThe value of collaboration and teamwork in cultivating that, that\u2019s what drives me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employees interested in learning more can visit the Ambassador Program page on The Hub<\/a>, UConn Health\u2019s intranet (while connected to the UConn Health network).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate our ambassadors so much, and this program wouldn\u2019t be what it is today without them,\u201d O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like you\u2019re being part of something that\u2019s bigger than you are, which is always nice,\u201d Miner says. \u201cThat helps you kind of find a place and help where you can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Health\u2019s Ambassador Program enlists employees to promote, support, connect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":254300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388,179,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-254305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare-workforce","category-uconn-health","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-22 13:02:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254309,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254305\/revisions\/254309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/254300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254305"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=254305"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=254305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}