Thursday, Aug. 21, the College of William and Mary announced that the Student Health Center, located at the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center, earned reaccreditation through April 2028 from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. The distinction, which only seven other Virginia universities have received, coincides with the arrival this fall of the College’s new Associate Vice President for Health and Wellness, Dr. Chris Renjilian ’05, following the departure of long-time wellness director and former counseling center director, Dr. Kelly Crace, to the University of Virginia last spring.
Throughout his initial weeks as Vice President for Health and Wellness, Renjilian said he hopes to learn as much as possible about the College’s wellness ecosystem, continuing to support ongoing initiatives and services from prior semesters. However, Renjilian looks to eventually incorporate an academic side to his position, collaborating with various academic departments to conduct interdisciplinary research on student wellness.
“If we can think about health and wellness as a hub and a laboratory for learning about what’s most important for students to flourish, and we can answer those questions in detailed and meaningful ways over time, we actually create an engine for the health and wellness thematic area to grow along with what students need,” Renjilian said.
Renjilian shared that online appointment scheduling for the Student Health Center will hopefully roll out in the next couple of weeks. He celebrated the addition as a boost for accessibility, while also emphasizing that students will have the chance to prepare themselves for the logistics of the modern healthcare system after graduation.
“It’s part of preparing students to be ready to succeed in the healthcare environment outside of William and Mary,” Renjilian said. “Because after your time at William and Mary, you’ll be engaging with patient portals and maybe scheduling some appointments online, which ones can’t be scheduled online, who to talk to. So we really should be thinking about mirroring here what those experiences are like in the outside world.”
As an undergraduate alumnus of the College, Renjillian aims to expand the wellness center’s services and continue providing high-quality care to the student body. He said that he aims to build on the notion of student flourishing that Crace worked on during his tenure, using his training in adolescent and sports medicine to inform his leadership.
“During the period of time we call adolescence and young adulthood, someone can be flourishing even if there aren’t obvious outward signs of productivity or being able to express all their values,” he said. “There’s so much learning, growth and adaptation that’s happening. Development is occurring sometimes in really rich and positive ways, but it may be tough for others to see.”
Throughout new student orientation, the Wellness Center has organized events for students and parents to understand the College’s approach to wellness and familiarize themselves with resources available to students. Renjilian detailed the information sessions he led alongside Director for Campus Recreation Linda Knight.
“We’re spending an hour talking about what health and wellness offers, but also philosophically, what health and wellness is all about and what parents can do to support their new students,” he said.
Renjilian noted that collaboration with the student wellness ambassadors will be a guiding component of his work alongside Integrative Wellness Manager Lindsay Heck, who manages the program. The Wellness Center brought on 12 new ambassadors this semester, bringing the total to 25 for the academic year.
“One of the things I’ve been most excited about is the fact that we have folks who are interested and motivated in co-creating wellness and bringing that to fellow students,” Renjilian said.
Grace Dreisbach ’27 has served as a wellness ambassador since fall 2024. She expressed excitement about collaborating with Renjilian starting this fall, as well as organizing several initiatives for students in the first few weeks of the semester.
“Suicide prevention week is coming up really soon, so our outreach and events committee is working really hard to do some tabling this week with lots of new resources for people on campus,” Dreisbach said. “I’m really excited for the new director, I think he has a really cool vision about what wellness means to William and Mary, and will help us continue pushing that message on campus.”
Student body president Zoe Wang ’25, M.P.P. ’26, has focused on expanding access to health resources through Student Assembly in collaboration with the wellness center. In an interview with The Flat Hat, she shared her enthusiasm about working alongside Renjilian to continue rolling out services that SA has offered in the past.
“We are excited to continue working with our wellness offices and Chris Renjilian, the new Associate Vice President for Wellness,” Wang wrote. “We look forward to continue funding STI testing and pregnancy testing at the Student Health Center and promote existing services that our Wellness Center offers.”
In the next few months, Renjilian hopes to broaden the College’s wellness ecosystem through continuing to offer services in collaboration with different sides of campus, which he says have evolved substantially since his time as an undergraduate at the College. Renjilian emphasized that boosting students’ awareness of the resources available to them remains a key priority for the wellness center this year.
“I think health and wellness has done a lot of work successfully under Dr. Crace’s leadership to think about the educational or experiential offerings to help people learn about this integrative approach to wellness,” he said. “That’s the fitness and wellness classes, the wellness application courses that people can take. It’s what we’re doing through the Center for Mindfulness and Authentic Excellence. So a lot of that is about getting the information out there.”
