Jen Jacobsen
Executive Director of Health & Wellness, Macalester College
Mental health and sexual respect represent two key topics of interest in working with our partners in athletics. In taking a systems approach to working with the student-athlete population, we can increase the efficacy of our work by using a strengths-based approach in leveraging protective factors of student-athletes while also working to reduce risk factors.
In this session, we’ll discuss the commonalities of protective factors for both student-athlete mental health and sexual respect and strategies and partnerships that can amplify them. We’ll also address risk factors that undermine mental health and sexual respect within the student-athlete population. We’ll finish by identifying key collaborators, relevant resources, and next action steps so that participants can apply what they learned in this session.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this webinar, attendees will:
- Describe protective factors for student-athletes related to mental health and sexual respect.
- Describe risk factors for student-athletes related to mental health and sexual respect.
- Identify campus partners both inside and outside of athletics.
- List key resources in supporting this work.
Presenters
Jen Jacobsen, MA MPH serves as the Executive Director of Health and Wellness at Macalester College; previously, she was in the role of Director of Health Promotion and Sexual Respect. Prior to this, she was the Director of Wellness & Prevention and deputy Title IX coordinator at Grinnell College for 11 years and also spent 18 years coaching Division III men’s and women’s track & field and cross country.
Jen has participated in the NCAA Sexual Assault Task Force, the NCAA Step UP! advisory board, the NCAA Division III Alcohol and Other Drug advisory group, the ACHA campus safety coalition (co-authoring the 2018 toolkit), and currently serves on NASPA’s Culture of Respect advisory board and the NIAAA College Working Group. She also represents Minnesota on the board of the North Central College Health Association.
Jen’s primary areas of research and practice include active bystanderism, mental health promotion, the role of alcohol in both sex and sexual assault, the intersection of student affairs and athletics, and leveraging a public health approach to work on college campuses. Her most relevant publication includes the chapter “The Role of Active Bystander Training within a Comprehensive Prevention Framework” in 2018’s Promoting Behavioral Health and Reducing Risk Among College Students: A Comprehensive Approach. Jen is pursuing a DrPH at Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in implementation science and an emphasis on adolescent/emerging adult behavioral health.
