Risa Wilkerson

Project Officer

Office: 919-843-3519
risa_wilkerson@unc.edu

Job Focus

Provides coaching, technical assistance and grant oversight to multidisciplinary community partnerships designed to promote active living and healthy eating through policy and environmental interventions. Works as part of our project team on program development, facilitation of learning networks, development of tools and resources and field-building activities (presentations in national state or regional contexts, consultations to other funders and organizations, dissemination of lessons learned).

Why am I working at Active Living By Design?

I once heard, "A good solution solves many problems." I would add that a good job touches many passions. The work at Active Living is both a good solution and a good job. It supports many of my strong interests including good health, strong relationships, environmental stewardship and social justice. That's because creating places where it's possible for people to be active and eat healthy foods is a solution that also addresses many other important challenges. I believe the work we do in this field is critically important because we are not simply inheriting this world from our forefathers, but borrowing it from our children and they deserve beautiful, vibrant communities that allow them to enjoy tremendous quality of life. It is a privilege and a joy to be here.

Bio

As project officer for ALBD, Risa works with community partnerships and collaborates closely with her colleagues on our interdisciplinary Project Team. She provides guidance and support for grantee partnerships and their leaders regarding strategic and program planning, program implementation, and sustainability. She is a spokesperson on active living topics and develops educational materials and tools for advocates. She also serves as ALBD's liaison to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership as Chair of their Steering Committee.

Risa has wide-ranging experience in coalition building, community assessment, public health program planning and implementation, building and supporting community partnerships and initiatives, grant writing and managing nonprofit organizations and projects.

Prior to her current role, Risa was the Vice President of Active Communities for the Michigan Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports/Michigan Fitness Foundation. There, she led project teams in a statewide effort to create active communities. Projects included the Promoting Active Communities Program, (an initiative to empower local communities to assess their physical activity environments, programs, and policies and develop strategies for improvements); Safe Routes to School (winner of the first national James L. Oberstar Safe Routes to School Award); and community-based demonstration projects.

In earlier years, Risa was the Executive Director of a non-profit agency serving five counties in Michigan called Fitness Council Region 1 where she inspired their Board of Directors to redirect the Council's focus from short-term programming (5-K runs, health fairs and short promotional programs) to long-term systemic change (active community environments). She has also written many articles on active communities for local and state publications as well freelance articles on various topics.

Risa earned a BA in Communication, with a specialization in professional writing, from Spring Arbor University and a MA in Communication from Michigan State University. She is also an alumnus of the Physical Activity and Public Health Course, a 35-hour training through the University of South Carolina, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At home, Risa loves to spend time with her husband, Doug, and go for runs and walks with Carl, her 100-pound Weimaraner. She is proud of her son, Braden, who lives in Michigan and is pursuing an MBA, and her daughter, Briana, who is a student at UNC Chapel Hill.