Meet the Team

CONTACT
Location: Daniels Hall
Paula Fitzpatrick
Director, Center for Well-being, Center for Well-Being

Phone: +1 (508) 8315528

Paula Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Well-Being and a Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She also serves on the Mental Health Implementation Team.  Prior to joining WPI she was a Professor of Psychology and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Assumption University. Paula is a long-term practitioner of meditation and teaches Koru Mindfulness and the 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program. She also conducts research in mindfulness and meditation, positive psychology, ...

view profile
Gina Heinsohn
Assistant Director, Center for Well-Being, Center for Well-Being

Phone: +1 (508) 8315129

As the Assistant Director, Gina oversees the planning, implementation, and assessment of all the Center for Well-Being's events and programing, including Wellness Days, ProjectConnect, wellness peer coaching, health education and promotion events, and more. As a strong believer in the impact a sense of belonging has on an individual's holistic wellbeing, they are always looking to make connections with students, staff, and faculty across campus and learning how to best support the WPI community. Gina has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, an M.A. in Higher ...

view profile

Center for Well-Being Affiliates

Robin Benoit

Robin Benoit

Meditation Facilitator

Robin Benoit

Robin Benoit is the Well-Being Resource and Outreach Librarian at the Gordon Library and has been with WPI for 13 years. Robin was introduced to meditation 7 years ago and has been fascinated by it ever since. She is a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Facilitator as well as a Certified Koru Teacher. Robin enjoys sharing meditation and mindfulness with the WPI community and is excited to be a community partner with the Center for Well-Being. 

In her free time, she enjoys sea glass hunting, needle felting, and reading.

Shavaun Cloran

Shavaun Cloran

Registered Dietitian

Shavaun Cloran

Shavaun Cloran is a Registered Dietitian who has been working at WPI for 10 years. Meeting, working with and supporting WPI students are some of Shavaun's favorite roles. She enjoys providing nutrition awareness during one on one sessions, group workshops or highlighting fueling foods during tabling events on campus. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for intuitive eating and recently became certified as an Intuitive Eating Counselor. Shavaun greatly appreciates being part of the CWB's holistic approach of self care and mental health.

Hiking, kayaking and reading are some of her favorite things to do during her free time.

"Eating Intuitively means learning to honor your mind, body and health."

Catherine Flayhan

Catherine Flayhan

Reiki Master

Catherine Flayhan

Catherine is passionate about supporting our WPI Community's wellness journey. Having encountered difficulty in her own life's path, she  found comfort in yoga and Reiki. Therefore, she expanded her personal practices to become certified. As an Usui Shiki Ryoho Third Degree Reiki Master Catherine serves as a channel, bringing energy to those who need it most. She seeks out energetic blockages in the body and trys to alleviate them to allow the energy within to flow more freely; as well as replenishing the body's energy stores. When people leave her room smiling, relaxed and refreshed... life is good.

In her free time she likes to do things with her family. Kayaking, cooking, or just making memories.

"You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside. "

Kathryn Moncrief

Kathryn Moncrief

Yoga Instructor

Kathryn Moncrief

Kate Moncrief (RYT 200) is trained in Iyengar-based Hatha yoga and has been teaching yoga for ten years. She teaches vinyasa flow classes focusing on the creative, thoughtful sequencing of postures, combined with breath, for a complete and inspiring practice. She believes in “yoga practice,” not “yoga perfect” and welcomes students to join her on this wellness journey.

Diana Fiorentino
Meditation Facilitator

Diana Fiorentino

Diana Fiorentino is the internal communications manager in Marketing Communications at WPI and has been with the university for two years working to support communications for and by members of the community. After years of having a dedicated daily meditation practice, she now partners with the Center for Well-Being to teach Koru Mindfulness. Diana deeply appreciates the opportunity to share her love for mindfulness and meditation with faculty, staff, and students. In her time outside of WPI, Diana enjoys being with her family, reading, being active outdoors, and practicing yoga, meditation, and Reiki.

Abby Sumner

Abigail Sumner

Zentangle Teacher

Abigail Sumner

Abby Sumner became a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) in 2019, but she first took a Zentangle course as part of an afterschool enrichment program at her elementary school. When people first see the artwork that Zentangle creates – the response is always “I can’t do art”, “I don’t have the patience for that”, but what is unique about Zentangle is that the methodology outlines a No Mistakes philosophy – that why we practice with pen! There is no right or wrong, and the unexpected is embraced. The Zentangle Method helps to change the negative “I can’t” mindset, to “I can”. If you can draw the letters i, s, c, & o, you can create all the patterns in Zentangle! Participants are usually surprised by how relaxed and de-stressed they feel after a session, and she often finds herself drawing little Zentangles in the margins of my notes or homework. 

She is involved in SWE and Habitat for Humanity on campus and likes to spend her free time outdoors or reading. 

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value” 

Michelle Borowski

Michelle Borowski

Art Historian

Michelle Borowski

Michelle Borowski has been immersed in the art world since high school, always captivated by humanity’s creativity and imagination as evidenced in the visual arts. She is the author of the definitive monograph on William Tolman Carlton (1816-1888), a Boston painter of portraits and genre subjects. “I care deeply about the success—in whatever way that may be defined for an individual—and well-being of our students here. Providing them with the tools to guide their understanding of art is an effective means of nurturing these traits. Curiosity, wonder, responses of joy—all are at play in the appreciation of works of art.” 

For Art and Joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand – fearing naught, and dreading no exposure.  

--painter James McNeill Whistler, from “The ‘Ten O’Clock’ Lecture”  1885

Katherine Foo

Katherine Foo

Pranayama Instructor

Katherine Foo

Katherine Foo is an Ashtanga yoga practitioner and a certified Level 2 pranayama instructor. She is a member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing and holds five precepts in the Kwan Um School of Zen. She is fascinated by the fact that our breath is so basic and essential to our vitality, and yet it also spans the physiological, neurological, emotional, and psychological dimensions of our health and well-being. Katherine enjoys teaching breathing techniques to strengthen resilience to stress, still fluctuations in the mind, and build physiological capacity

 “Take practice, and all is coming.” – Pattabhi Jois