HR IntranetThrive is a series of events focused on building positive mental health through discussion, learning, skill development, and resource sharing. Events are open to all staff, faculty, and students, and focus on thriving together as a community. Review current event offerings below!
Thriving Together: Cultivating Connection, Inclusivity, and Community
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Thrive Week 2025! Your energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to wellbeing helped make this week a meaningful success. We’d love to hear about your experience. If you participated in any sessions, please take a moment to share your thoughts by completing our brief online survey by December 19, 2025. Your input helps us continue to grow and improve Thrive programming.
Upcoming Thrive 365 Events
Discover and participate in wellness programs, events, celebrations, workshops, and initiatives designed with diverse needs in mind, including nutrition, fitness, and mental health resources.
The Thrive team did an exceptional job of organizing and delivering workshops and events. They were a mix of informative, social, and fun experiences that we can attend when it works with our schedules. This is a much-needed week that allows us to balance life and work. Kudos to our leadership that supports and encourages our participation.
Thrive Week 2025 Participant
Any Queen’s student, staff, or faculty members are invited to become a Thrive Champion. Thrive is a campus-wide initiative designed to promote positive mental health for everyone. Thrive exists to encourage dialogue about balance, community engagement, social support, and healthy lifestyle choices. By becoming a Thrive Champion, you can contribute to this dialogue and support positive mental health at Queen’s.
- Event Lead: Plan and run an event with your team, or let the Thrive team use your space for an event.
- Event Host/Volunteer: Host your own Thrive event or support with facilitating an event.
- Committee Member: Participate in our committee to plan the annual Thrive week.
- Donate: Donate to fund a specific event, activity, or speaker. Donate prizes or supplies.
Thrive began as an idea between two colleagues at UBC, Patty Hambler and Suzanne Jolly, in the spring of 2009. They shared a common goal - to create a campus environment that better understood the importance of mental health and wellbeing, one that was supportive of individuals to make choices that promoted not only healthy bodies, but healthy minds.&
- 2009: First annual Thrive week launched at UBC Vancouver with 20 different events and the tagline ‘Health, Community, Commitment’.
- 2014: By far Thrive’s biggest year yet. Over 65 partners and 100 events and activities marked a highly successful initiative that reached over 35,000 campus community members. Thrive events were hosted on two UBC Campuses and in 7 different locations.
- 2015: Queen’s adopts Thrive onto its campus.
- 2021: Shifting our approach to thriving all year around.
Our Thrive 365 programming is created with intention and is meant to be responsive to the current needs of Queen’s employees. Programming is created as a proactive response to data received through the Employee Experiences Survey, benefit usage, and event feedback surveys. In addition, wellness programming is designed to cater to the diverse needs and dimensions of an individual’s wellbeing.
Thrive also aligns with the Campus Wellbeing Framework, the Queen's Strategy, and The Okanagan Charter.
With guidance from the Campus Wellbeing Framework, our programming incorporates four priority focus areas:
- Belonging and Social Connection
- Personal Wellbeing
- Places
- Culture
Queen’s University’s commitment to healthy and sustainable workplaces, student experiences, and the development of a vibrant intellectual community is strengthened significantly through a commitment to enhancing mental health and wellbeing of students, staff and faculty. Thrive is an important part of this commitment and is a key component of larger plans to enhance health and wellbeing at Queen’s.
Over the past decade, I hadn’t prioritized my personal wellness due to demanding work schedules and competing priorities. However, this year I challenged myself to attend two wellness events, and they exceeded my expectations. Both sessions were exceptionally well organized and fostered a culture of inclusion and diversity. To my surprise, I left each event feeling lighter, more energized, and rejuvenated—feelings I hadn’t experienced in quite some time. I was able to bring that renewed positivity and energy back to my department, and the sense of joy and calm has stayed with me long after the events concluded. I thoroughly enjoyed these sessions and look forward to participating in many more. It’s truly encouraging to see our institution investing in and prioritizing employee wellbeing.
Thrive Week 2025 Participant
2025 Thrive Keynote with Stephanie Simpson
Stephanie Simpson, Vice-Principal (Culture, Equity, and Inclusion) has more than two decades of experience in human rights and equity. She has been instrumental in fostering inclusivity and legislative compliance around matters such as accessibility, human rights, and equity on Queen’s campus. During Thrive Week, she shared her experience building belonging and community at Queen's, and discussed the power of shared purpose in sharing our collective wellbeing.
A Bit More Than A Rough Patch with Susan Stewart
An engaging and thought-provoking online session with comedian, author, and mental health advocate Susan Stewart. In her talk, Susan shares her personal experience of surviving a mental health crisis. With honesty, vulnerability, and a touch of humour, she challenges the stigma around mental illness, offers hope to those facing similar struggles, and reminds us of the power of laughter and resilience. This recording is no longer available.
2024 Keynote with Chancellor Shelagh Rogers
Chancellor Rogers is a veteran broadcast-journalist, an Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and an inaugural winner of the Margaret Trudeau Award for mental health advocacy. During Thrive Week 2024, she hosted a virtual 90-minute keynote presentation and shared her personal wellness journey about living with mental illness.
Celebrating a decade of Thrive at Queen's
In a message to the Queen's community, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane offers remarks acknowledging the significant 10-year anniversary of Thrive and inviting everyone to join in the celebration during Thrive Week in November 2024.
2023 Keynote with Dr. Jacoba Lilius
Dr. Lilius joined Queen’s in 2006 after receiving her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan. Her research centers on unpacking prosocial emotions and behaviours in the workplace, with a particular interest in individual practices that support compassion. She has continued her research on workplace compassion for over 20 years as an active member of the CompassionLab. For Thrive Week 2023, Dr. Lilius hosted a 75-minute keynote presentation to discuss compassion in our lives.
2022 Keynote with Dr. Gillian Mandich
Dr. Gillian Mandich is an award-winning, internationally recognized happiness researcher, speaker, educator, and author. She is the founder of the International Happiness Institute of Health Science Research and a Research Associate at the World Database of Happiness, based out of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands. For Thrive Week 2022, Dr. Mandich hosted a 75-minute keynote presentation to discuss happiness in the new world of work and the digital era.
2021 Keynote with Janice Brant
The work of Ratinenhayen:thos as a community collective, demonstrates principles rooted in our traditions, and speaks to a number of concepts surrounding individual and community wellness, and many ways in which we can work towards healing, health and wellness through planting and seed saving. The keynote will touch on traditional ways of knowing and doing as it relates to seed saving and planting activities, and also how these activities promote and contribute to wellness.
2019 Keynote with Francoise Mattieu
Francoise Mattieu is the Executive Director of Tend and former crisis counsellor at Queen’s University. They specialize in high-stress, trauma exposed work. During Thrive Week, Francoise discussed navigating times of crisis and ways to show compassion while taking care of yourself.
Learning across Queen's
Several university departments offer courses, workshops, and training for employees. Keep learning, keep growing!
Wellness that Works
Your personal wellness directly impacts your ability to achieve your goals at work. Take care of you.
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