Building Multipliers: The Inaugural Certified WenWell® Facilitator Cohort

Sustainable well-being requires more than isolated wellness activities. It requires environments that intentionally strengthen people's capacity to navigate demands, create sufficient psychological and emotional safety for authentic participation, and foster meaningful connection. WenWell® is a wellness framework grounded in three interconnected principles: Capacity, Safety, and Connection. The Certified WenWell® Facilitator (CWF) Program was developed to prepare individuals to translate these principles into practice through WenWell® Circles and structured conversations. In September 2026, WenWell® certified its inaugural cohort of four facilitators. As part of Day 1 of certification training, the facilitators first experienced a WenWell® Circle as participants. The WenWell Index was administered immediately before and after the Circle. At baseline, the cohort's aggregate Index was within the Stabilizing range. Immediately following the Circle, the aggregate Index moved into the Thriving range. Although these preliminary descriptive findings from four participants cannot establish effectiveness or causality, they provide an early signal supporting continued evaluation of WenWell® Circles and the facilitator-training model.

Today marks an important milestone in the evolution of WenWell® with the introduction of the inaugural Certified WenWell® Facilitators (CWF): Rebecca Greenawalt, BSN, RN; Rosale C. Lobo, PhD, RN, CNS, LNC; NaTacha Campbell, RN; and Denise Morris, MSN, RN, CMSN.

WenWell® is grounded in the belief that sustainable well-being requires more than isolated wellness activities or placing the responsibility for wellness solely on the individual. Well-being is also shaped by the conditions in which people work, learn, lead, communicate, and connect.

This perspective is consistent with the growing emphasis on systems-level approaches to healthcare workforce well-being. The National Academy of Medicine (2022), for example, has emphasized the need to address organizational and system conditions that influence the well-being of the healthcare workforce rather than relying exclusively on individual-level interventions.

WenWell® operationalizes this broader perspective through three interconnected principles: Capacity, Safety, and Connection.

• Capacity: Do I have the physical, emotional, and mental energy needed to meet today's demands?
• Safety: Do I feel psychologically and emotionally safe enough to speak honestly, ask for help, and participate authentically?
• Connection: Do I feel connected to myself, my purpose, and the people around me?

Together, these principles provide a framework for examining well-being not simply as something an individual possesses, but as something that can be strengthened or depleted through everyday environments and interactions.

The Certified WenWell® Facilitator Program was developed to prepare individuals to bring the WenWell® framework into practice. Certified facilitators are prepared to lead WenWell® Circles and structured conversations designed to create space for reflection, shared learning, connection, and meaningful action.

The facilitator's role extends beyond leading a discussion. Facilitators learn how to hold space, recognize group dynamics, establish appropriate boundaries, support participation, respond to difficult or emotional moments, and intentionally cultivate conditions that support Capacity, Safety, and Connection.

Psychological safety is particularly relevant to this work. Psychological safety describes an environment in which people perceive that interpersonal risk-taking—such as speaking up, asking questions, acknowledging uncertainty, or sharing concerns—is possible without unreasonable fear of negative interpersonal consequences. Research across organizational settings has connected psychological safety with learning, communication, collaboration, and participation (Edmondson & Bransby, 2023).

For WenWell®, however, Safety represents one part of a larger interconnected framework. People may feel safe enough to participate but lack the capacity to engage. They may have capacity but feel disconnected from the people around them. The intersection of Capacity, Safety, and Connection therefore becomes central to how WenWell® approaches sustainable well-being.

A defining component of the inaugural Certified WenWell® Facilitator training occurred on Day 1.

Before learning how to facilitate a WenWell® Circle for others, the trainees first experienced a Circle themselves.

This sequence was intentional. Facilitators should understand not only the mechanics of a Circle but also what it feels like to enter the space as a participant. Experiencing the Circle provides an opportunity to observe the framework from the inside—to reflect, participate, connect, and experience how the environment is held before assuming responsibility for creating that environment for someone else.

The progression can be summarized simply: Experience the framework → Understand the framework → Learn to hold the framework for others.

The inaugural facilitators participated in a WenWell® Circle on Day 1 of training. A pre-Circle WenWell Index assessment was completed immediately before the experience, followed by a post-Circle assessment after the Circle. This provided an opportunity to examine the cohort's immediate experience using the same measurement approach incorporated into the WenWell® model.

The WenWell Index provides a structured approach to examining wellness within the context of the WenWell® framework. For this inaugural training experience, the Index was examined at the cohort level rather than as an evaluation of individual participants.

The results demonstrated a positive directional shift. Before participating in the WenWell® Circle, the inaugural cohort's aggregate WenWell Index was categorized as Stabilizing. Immediately following participation in the Circle, the aggregate Index moved into the Thriving range.

• Inaugural Cohort: Day 1 Circle Experience
• Pre-Circle — Cohort WenWell Index Category: Stabilizing
• Post-Circle — Cohort WenWell Index Category: Thriving
• Direction: Positive improvement

This movement is especially meaningful within the context of facilitator development. The individuals preparing to hold WenWell® Circles for others first experienced the structured environment themselves and demonstrated an immediate positive change in their collective Index following that experience.

These findings should be interpreted as preliminary program-evaluation data rather than evidence of effectiveness. The inaugural cohort consisted of only four participants. There was no comparison group, and the assessment measured immediate pre- and post-Circle status. The observed change therefore cannot establish that participation in the Circle caused the improvement, nor can the results be generalized to other populations.

The finding does, however, provide an important early signal worthy of continued evaluation.

The inaugural cohort is particularly significant because all four Certified WenWell® Facilitators are members of the Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project (CTNWP) Advisory Board.

CTNWP is a statewide initiative powered by WenWell® and grounded in the principle that nurse wellness is a systems issue—not simply an individual responsibility. After hearing from more than 400 nurses, nursing students, and faculty through the Connecticut statewide nurse wellness survey, the work moved from identifying challenges toward developing coordinated action. WenWell® Circles became one component of the resulting CTNWP Action Framework.

This relationship is important to distinguish. WenWell® provides the broader framework, facilitator certification, programs, assessments, and tools. The Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project applies components of the WenWell® framework as part of a statewide strategy to advance nurse mental health and well-being.

The Certified WenWell® Facilitator Program itself is not exclusive to nursing, Connecticut, or CTNWP. As WenWell® grows, the certification model is intended to extend across healthcare, academia, organizations, professions, and communities.

Beginning with CTNWP, however, created an opportunity to develop the first facilitators among leaders already engaged in translating nurse wellness data into action.

Meaningful change cannot depend on one founder, one facilitator, one training, or one event. For a framework to become sustainable, other individuals must be prepared to carry the work forward while preserving its essential principles.

The Certified WenWell® Facilitator Program therefore represents the development of multipliers.

Rather than centralizing WenWell® experiences around a single facilitator, certification creates a pathway for trained individuals to bring Capacity, Safety, and Connection into the communities and environments they serve.

For the inaugural cohort, this means preparing Rebecca Greenawalt, Rosale C. Lobo, NaTacha Campbell, and Denise Morris to facilitate WenWell® Circles within the nursing community as part of CTNWP.

As the facilitator network expands, maintaining fidelity to the WenWell® model will be essential. Certification is therefore not viewed as the end of facilitator development. Ongoing support, observation, resources, and opportunities for continued learning can help ensure that the model is delivered with consistency as it expands.

The inaugural cohort establishes an important foundation for future evaluation of both WenWell® Circles and the Certified WenWell® Facilitator Program.

As additional cohorts are trained and additional Circles are conducted, evaluation can move beyond immediate pre- and post-Circle observations. Areas for continued investigation include:

• Changes in the WenWell Index across larger and more diverse populations.
• Changes within individual dimensions of Capacity, Safety, and Connection.
• Sustainability of changes at later follow-up periods.
• Facilitator confidence and development over time.
• Fidelity to the WenWell® Circle model across facilitators and settings.
• Participant experiences of psychological safety, connection, and engagement.
• Differences across healthcare, academic, organizational, and community settings.

The certification of Rebecca Greenawalt, BSN, RN; Rosale C. Lobo, PhD, RN, CNS, LNC; NaTacha Campbell, RN; and Denise Morris, MSN, RN, CMSN represents more than the completion of an inaugural training. It represents the beginning of a facilitator network.

On Day 1, these future facilitators began their experience not by leading a Circle, but by participating in one. The cohort's aggregate WenWell Index moved from Stabilizing before the Circle to Thriving immediately following the Circle, providing a preliminary observation that can now inform continued evaluation.

They subsequently moved from participant to facilitator—learning how to intentionally hold spaces that support Capacity, Safety, and Connection for others.

Four inaugural facilitators. One growing framework. A shared commitment to Capacity, Safety, and Connection.

The work now moves forward through the people prepared to carry it.

Making Wellness the Standard of Care™—one conversation, one circle, and one community at a time.

APA 7th Edition

Garvin Mayo, W. (2026). Building multipliers: The inaugural Certified WenWell® Facilitator cohort. *WenWell Publishing*. https://www.wenwellpublishing.com/publications/building-multipliers-certified-wenwell-facilitator-cohort

Suggested In-Text Citation

Parenthetical citation: (Garvin Mayo, 2026)

Narrative citation: Garvin Mayo (2026)

When Referencing the Preliminary Finding

The inaugural Certified WenWell® Facilitator cohort demonstrated a positive aggregate WenWell Index shift from the Stabilizing range before participation in a WenWell® Circle to the Thriving range immediately following the Circle (Garvin Mayo, 2026).

When citing these findings elsewhere, the results should be described as preliminary descriptive program-evaluation findings and should not be characterized as demonstrating efficacy or causation.

For permissions, certification information, or additional information, visit WenWell360.com.

• Edmondson, A. C., & Bransby, D. P. (2023). Psychological safety comes of age: Observed themes in an established literature. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10, 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-055217
• National Academy of Medicine. (2022). National plan for health workforce well-being. National Academy of Medicine.