Workplace and Community Engagement Committee Making a difference, here and now 💛
We welcome you to join our efforts to improve our workplace and strengthen our community engagement. This committee is open to anyone from the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics (HOBI).
Current & Upcoming Events
🩺April Public Health Observances
April is a time to raise awareness about critical health and social issues. We join the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) in recognizing:
- National Healthy Schools Day (April 8)
- National Public Health Week (April 7-13)
- Earth Day (April 22)
🌷Spring Team Outing: Farmers Market Edition | May 4th 4-7PM
We’re excited for our upcoming team hang at the Grove Street Farmers Market on Monday, May 4th from 4–7 PM!
If you would like to join, please email Nicole Hammer—we’d love to have you there. The more, the merrier! 💛
🥫Food4Kids Food Drive | May – June 2026
This summer, we’re hosting a Food4Kids Food Drive to raise awareness and support food-insecure students and children in our community—an issue that continues to affect many local families.
More details coming soon on how to participate and what items to donate.
💉Little Flu Fighters | Year-Round Partnership
Our Workplace & Community Engagement Committee offers interactive, accessible presentations for school staff and parents focused on the importance of childhood influenza vaccination. Alongside each session, we provide easy-to-understand educational brochures that connect families with local walk-in clinics and offer practical guidance on flu prevention.
Current outreach locations include:
- UF Early Childhood Collaboratory
- Newell Drive
- Diamond Village
- Lake Alice
Bring Little Flu Fighters to Your Community
Do you know a school, childcare center, or parent group that could benefit? We’d love to partner with you.
You can request a presentation for:
- School staff meetings
- Parent groups or PTA events
- Community or childcare centers
Our team will work with you to coordinate timing, audience needs, and materials to ensure the session is impactful and easy to implement.
What to Expect
- 20–30 minute presentation (flexible based on audience)
- Printed brochures for families
- Evidence-based, approachable flu education
- Connection to local vaccination resources
Schedule a Presentation
📧 To request a presentation or to learn more about planning and logistics, please reach out to: Moad AlRahamneh (Planning & Presentation), Nicole C. Hammer (Planning & Presentation), Jim W. Harper (Communication & Media).
Moad Al-Rahamneh Ph.D.
Nicole C Hammer MPH
Jim W Harper
🍽️The Ronald McDonald House Visiting Chef Program | Year-Round Partnership
HOBI’s Workplace and Community Engagement Committee (WCEC) is partnering with The Ronald McDonald House (RMH) to help with its Visiting Chef Program! The Ronald McDonald House Charities of North Central Florida has been helping families with seriously ill children in our region since 1982. The RMH is located about 1 mile from Shand’s Hospital.
As part of the Visiting Chef Program, we invite HOBI faculty, staff, and students to coordinate a small group (4) to prepare a dinner for the RMH. For those interested in volunteering, the Workplace and Community Engagement Committee has funding to support purchasing groceries to serve at the RMH.
The Ronald MCDonald House Charities of North Central Florida
Visiting Chef Program
To learn more about the Visiting Chef Program and for information on how to sign up, please click the link below.
Workplace and Community Engagement Committee
Reimbursement Toolkit
To learn more about our departmental reimbursement guidelines or to submit a reimbursement for the Visiting Chef Program, please click the link below.
What we Do
Ronald McDonald House
Visiting Chef Program | April 2026
Thank you to (L) Linette Morales, Chameli Mallik, Matison Herndon, Isabella Waldorff, and Vedika Desai (R) for preparing a meal through the Visiting Chef Program at the Ronald McDonald House on April 9, 2026!
Read Across America Book drive
National Reading Month | March 2026
We hosted another incredibly successful Read Across America Book Drive in collaboration with UF Health’s Pediatrics CMS Center, collecting nearly 300 books in support of National Reading Month in March. Thanks to your generosity, these donations reached multiple community partners across Gainesville, including the UF Health Main Street Clinic and the Mobile OB/GYN Outreach Vehicle—helping expand access to books and literacy resources throughout our community. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. Thank you for helping us spread kindness, curiosity, and the joy of reading.
The Workplace and Community Engagement Committee is a faculty, staff, and student-run committee that is dedicated to improving our workplace and community through respect, representation, accessibility, and fairness. Our goal is to foster practices and departmental policies that are conducive to a supportive and healthy work climate. We aim to attract, retain, support, and advance heterogenous groups in our student body, workforce, and leadership.
We offer workshops and professional development training, seminar sessions with community organization leaders, and education for future leadership in the field of health outcomes and biomedical informatics. Our committee strives to maintain accountability, transparency, and diligence in our sustained focus on improving our workplace and meaningfully engaging with our greater Gainesville community. This involves defining goals and metrics annually and assessing our performance. We continuously invite feedback and critiques from our committee to ensure we our constantly refining our methods to maximize the promotion of practices and departmental policies that foster respect, representation, accessibility, and fairness.
Join our team
We welcome you to join our efforts to improve our workplace and strengthen our community engagement. This committee is open to anyone from the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics (HOBI).
Our committee meetings occur on the third Tuesday of every month at 4 p.m., via Zoom. If you would like to receive the invitation to join our monthly meetings, please email Nicole Hammer.
Organizations We Support
Including but not limited to:
The Ronald MCdonald house charities of north florida
Visiting Chef Program
The Ronald McDonald House of North Central Florida Visiting Chef Program: We welcome HOBI faculty, staff and students to coordinate a small group (4) to prepare a dinner for the Ronald McDonald House.
Domestic Abuse Network
Peaceful Paths in Gainesville, FL
Peaceful Paths is the certified domestic violence center serving Alachua, Bradford and Union Counties in North Central Florida.
non-profit organization
Food4Kids Backpack Program of North Florida
The Food4Kids Backpack Program of North Florida fills backpacks with nonperishable food and distributes them to students in need, from kindergarten through high school.
National Diabetes awareness month
Florida Diabetes Camp
Florida Diabetes Camp is committed to enhancing the lives of children with diabetes through education, recreation, and support. It helps children with diabetes by offering a safe, fun, and empowering environment where campers learn diabetes management, build friendships, and gain confidence.
Vitrual red kettle fundraiser
The Salvation Army
We have held a Virtual Red Kettle Fundraiser in December. A fundraiser can help put food on tables, provide shelter, and offer critical support to struggling families in your neighborhood. Make a greater impact by rallying your family and friends together to fundraise for your home community.
National Reading Month
Read Across America Book Drive
The National Education Association’s Read Across America is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. This year-round program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources that are about everyone, for everyone.
University of florida
HealthStreet
HealthStreet community health workers help bridge the gap between community members and resources available to them, including medical and social services and opportunities to participate in research that is relevant to their health concerns and conditions.
Youth social services organization
Partnership for Strong Families
Partnership for Strong Families provides child welfare services designed to protect local children from abuse, neglect and abandonment and assists in establishing safe and permanent homes with their own families, partner families or adoptive parents.
Anonymous Feedback survey
Our anonymous feedback survey is a way for all faculty, staff, and students to share their thoughts, concerns, or suggestions with us. The Anonymous Feedback Survey will be included in each of our monthly newsletters. This survey will be open at all times to anyone who wants to express concerns, ask questions, or offer advice or suggestions on anything related to our department.
Your input is invaluable to us, and we want to ensure that everyone feels heard and respected. The survey will be completely anonymous, and our goal is to collect and analyze the responses in order to better target initiatives, improve support, and strengthen our workplace environment. Together, we can continue to foster a space where everyone is happy, healthy, and valued.
Contact US
📧 For questions about the Workplace & Community Engagement Committee, please reach out to: Dominick Lemas (Chair), Nicole C. Hammer, (Co-Chair).
Dominick Lemas Ph.D.
Nicole C Hammer MPH
Workplace Resources
If you are in an emergency or need immediate help, please contact UFPD by calling 911. For non-emergencies, you can contact UFPD at 352-392-1111 and U Matter, We Care at umatter@ufl.edu.
🌐 Additional UF resources are included below. For more information and a comprehensive list of available UF resources, visit U Matter, We Care.
- Field and Fork Pantry
- Student Health Care Center
- Services for Employees
- Employee Assistance | No-cost, confidential solutions to life’s challenges.
- GatorPerks Discount Program – Worklife
- Career Development Hub | Current Employees
- Toolkits | Current Employees
- Employee Education Program | Current Employees
- Resources for Faculty
- Campus Resources for Graduate Students
College of Medicine
Wellness Resources
The College of Medicine provides a list of resources to help you develop and maintain your wellness in a number of areas.
University of Florida Health
Health Wellness University
UF Health Wellness University offers classes, programs, groups, activities, resources and health fairs throughout Gainesville, Ocala and The Villages communities.
Human Resources
Wellness Programs
Well at UF offers a variety of programs, toolkits and resources designed to support the well-being of faculty and staff at the University of Florida
HOBI News
🔔 For more information, please visit https://hobi.med.ufl.edu/.
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