How UTC’s Mocs Wellness Initiative is reshaping health on campus 

On a weekday afternoon inside the Aquatic and Recreation Center, a group of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga employees moves through a workout they didn’t design on their own. 

They’re not guessing at exercises. They’re not following a generic plan. And they’re not doing it alone. 

Instead, they’re working with a team. 

Graduate students in physical therapy focus on movement and strength. Nutrition students talk through food choices and habits. Health coaching students help connect the dots—what’s realistic, what’s sustainable and what gets in the way. Alongside them are faculty and staff members providing mentorship and guidance. 

Together, they are the backbone of the Mocs Wellness Initiative, an interdisciplinary program designed to support employee health while preparing UTC students for the realities of collaborative care. 

And in just two years, it has started to show what’s possible. 

“We haven’t really shared data with the campus or talked much outside of our departments about what successes we’ve had with the program,” said Megan McKnight, director of the Center for Wellbeing. “We wanted to highlight what this has been like for employees and for students—and what we’re learning from it.” 

The Mocs Wellness Initiative launched in fall 2024 as an expansion of UTC’s Pro Bono Physical Therapy Clinic, with a simple but ambitious goal: help faculty and staff build healthier, more sustainable lifestyles while giving students hands-on experience. 

Department of Physical Therapy Professor Betsy Myers is the architect of the Pro Bono Physical Therapy Clinic, which has become one of the most distinctive student learning environments on campus. She directs the clinic, housed in University Health Services, where first- and third-year doctoral students treat members of the campus community under faculty supervision. 

Myers said the idea for the Mocs Wellness Initiative grew from a gap she had seen for years, and the program’s structure is intentional. 

Participants move through a 10-week program that blends weekly physical therapy sessions, nutrition assessments and education, and ongoing health coaching. The work is individualized, but the approach is shared—each discipline contributing to a broader understanding of health. 

“We have people who want to change behaviors, but they don’t know how,” Myers said. “They don’t know how to exercise. They don’t know what a healthy diet is. They don’t know how to fit it in.” 

At the same time, she saw an opportunity. 

The clinic already existed. The students were already learning. The question became “What could happen if those pieces—and others across campus—came together,” Myers said. “And what would that look like if we worked across disciplines?” 

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The answer has been a program that serves two groups at once. 

For employees, it offers structure, support and access—often to services they may not otherwise pursue.

For students, it provides something harder to replicate in a classroom: experience. 

“It’s been an amazing way to see what it will be like to work in clinical care,” said Hadyn Tjornhom, a graduate assistant in the Center for Wellbeing and a Master of Public Health student in nutrition and dietetics. “We work alongside physical therapy students and health coaching students and talk through goals together. It really broadens your knowledge.” 

That collaboration is central to the model. 

“It’s shown me the possibilities when academic and student affairs work together,” McKnight said. “We’re creating opportunities not just for employees to improve their health, but for students to grow as professionals working alongside other disciplines.” 

Students meet regularly in interdisciplinary settings to discuss shared clients and align their approaches. The result is a more complete picture of each participant and a more realistic preview of professional practice. 

“It was a really cool way to see what interdisciplinary work will look like and how it benefits the clients,” Tjornhom said.

For Dr. Candace Ricketts, who earned a bachelor’s degree in health and human performance from UTC in 2022 and a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in 2025, the experience started at the ground floor of the program’s first cohort. 

“We were the tester round where they were still doing the research project on it,” Ricketts said. 

As part of that first group, she and her classmates helped shape how the program would operate on the physical therapy side, building evaluation templates that went beyond treating a single injury to include a patient’s full health picture. 

“We had to come up with what evaluations look like that are tailored toward a more well-rounded physical therapy program than just, ‘I’ve got some knee pain, fix my knee, send me out,’” she explained. 

That meant asking different questions, adjusting approaches and working alongside students from other disciplines who would carry the conversation further. 

As the program progressed, the results became clearer. 

“At the start, we were like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work,’” Ricketts said. “But by the end, to see some of those positive results—even if it just seems kind of tiny—was like, ‘We’re onto something here.’” 

Now working at Erlanger Outpatient Physical Therapy, she said the experience continues to shape her approach to patient care. 

“We have to be able to have that general idea of concepts from different disciplines,” Ricketts said. “So that way, if there’s more investigation needed, we know where to refer and how to help.” 

The impact on participants has been just as clear. 

Across the first two cohorts, employees attended 96% of scheduled appointments and showed measurable improvements in strength, balance and aerobic capacity. Participants also reported increased knowledge around nutrition and benefited from individualized plans. 

In many cases, the program uncovered needs that had gone unaddressed. 

Thirty-one percent of participants required consultation or referral for previously undiagnosed or poorly managed medical conditions, while others faced barriers such as food insecurity. 

“That was alarming,” Myers said. “There are people who want to change, but they don’t have the resources or don’t know how to access them.” 

The program also saw strong satisfaction—100% of participants reported being extremely satisfied, with high marks for student professionalism and support. 

But the results also revealed something else. 

Change takes time. 

Participants reported an average 18% increase in self-efficacy during the program. However, some saw that confidence dip after the program ended, particularly over the holidays when structure and support fell away. 

“They were like, ‘I just got into a rhythm,’” Myers said, “and then life happens.” 

McKnight added, “It’s really about showing the investment in employee wellbeing and what we’re learning as a campus. We’re seeing areas of need—unmanaged health concerns, food insecurity—and that helps us think about how we move forward.” 

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That insight is shaping what comes next. 

Program leaders are working toward expanding the initiative into a two-semester model, extending support through the spring and adding more individualized nutrition sessions and group-based learning opportunities. 

The goal is simple: give participants enough time to turn short-term progress into long-term habits. 

“Ten weeks wasn’t enough for lasting confidence,” Myers said. 

At the same time, demand continues to grow. 

The program has drawn nearly 100 applications for just 16 spots over two years, highlighting both interest and need. 

For some participants, the experience has extended beyond personal health. 

Dr. Ashleigh Pipes, an assistant professor in the Applied Leadership and Learning program, initially joined to address her own shift to a more sedentary, online teaching schedule. 

What followed was something unexpected. 

“I didn’t imagine how much this was going to evolve,” Pipes said. 

Her experience in the program, combined with her academic work in positive psychology and language learning, led to a new research focus on doctoral student wellness—particularly around isolation, stress and access to support. 

“I realized there was a strand of consistency in a lot of the things I was doing,” she said. 

Now, she is exploring how those same principles—connection, structure and access to resources—can support graduate students as they navigate the most demanding phases of their programs. 

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Back in the ARC, the work continues. 

Students adjust plans. Participants ask questions. Conversations move from workouts to meals to schedules to stress. 

It’s not one thing. 

And that’s the point. 

“It shouldn’t be that hard to be healthy,” Myers said. “So what can we do to make it easier?” 

“This is work that benefits both sides of the campus,” McKnight said. “It’s about supporting our employees while also preparing students for what it looks like to care for people in real-world settings.” 

Learn more

Center for Wellbeing 

Department of Physical Therapy 

Visit UTC 

How to apply