This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are talking about foundations of wellness. We are having that conversation with Bill Reger-Nash, EdD, Professor Emeritus, at the School of Public Health, West Virginia University.

“Mindfulness is learning to be more present moment by moment nonjudgmentally and all of us could use a good dose in being more aware and more present.”

~Bill Reger-Nash, EdD

Dr. Bill Reger-Nash is professor emeritus in the WVU School of Public Health. He has a doctoral degree in exercise physiology (1984) from West Virginia University and master’s degrees in educational psychology (1973) and political science (1974) from the University of Hawaii. He was an undergraduate French Major (Marist College 1965). He worked as a high school French teacher, school guidance counselor, research coordinator at a hospital Cardiac and Wellness Center, executive director of the Bayer Community Wellness Program, Director of Wellness for Ohio Valley Health Services and Education in West Virginia and eastern Ohio, and was the founding director of the West Virginia University Wellness Program. He coached football, basketball, track, soccer, and sailing.

Given his interest in population issues, Bill ran for and was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1985. Human Kinetics published his mindfulness-based Foundations of Wellness in 2015. He taught wellness and stress management courses at West Virginia University since 1991. Bill began a regular meditation practice as a religious monk in 1959 to help manage stress, increase inner peace, and keep his life in balance.

Bill and his wife Jan have a daily mindfulness practice. He enjoys spending time in the outdoor cross-country skiing, sailing, bicycling, walking in the woods, and gardening.