Total Worker Health®: Advancing Well-Being in the Workplace

Class description

Total Worker Health®: Advancing Well-Being in the Workplace

October 8 - November 19, 2026

Total Worker Health (TWH) is a comprehensive, research-to-practice approach that is essential to protect workers from emerging, traditional safety and health hazards, and promote worker well-being. The course content will include an examination of the TWH five elements and concepts, an introduction to occupational health psychology, its relevance to safety, and discussion of resources and effective implementation strategies to help organizations integrate safety, health, and well-being policies, programs and practices.

Join us in a combined learning environment that includes 6 weeks of self-paced learning and interactive live, virtual sessions on the practical application of the TWH approach.

Interactive activities include large and small breakout group discussion, problem solving based on attendees’ organizational experience, and conversations with guest speakers on various topics.

This 26- hour course involves completing 10 hours of virtual instructor-led class time and 16 hours of self-paced e-learning over 6 weeks. Enrolled participants are required to follow the sequence of the self-paced modules using Canvas Learning Management System and to attend three pre-scheduled virtual instructor-led sessions using Zoom Video Conference format. Class sizes are small to allow unique attention to each participant's needs and one-on-one interaction with the instructors. No prior knowledge of TWH is required, but enrolled participants should be familiar with the field of occupational health and safety.

This course serves as the key required course for individuals enrolling in the joint UW DEOHS CE/OHWC Total Worker Health Certificate Program. Individuals not seeking the Certificate may enroll and attend the course as a standalone.

Course Requirement & Schedule: Please contact ce@uw.edu if you are unable to make any of the virtual Instructor-led sessions to work out accommodations.

• From October 8 - November 19, 2026, complete 16 hours self-paced modules

  AND

• Attend three instructor-led, virtual sessions:

  • October 22, 2026 from 12pm to 3pm PST

  • November 5, 2026 from 12pm to 3pm PST

  • November 19, 2026 from 9am to 2pm PST

Audience: Health and safety professionals and any other professionals intersecting with occupational health, such as human resources, educators, healthcare providers, labor leaders, risk management specialists, wellness specialists, etc.

Course Instructors:

Four instructors plus eight guest lecture experts in different TWH topics.

Katia Costa-Black, PT, PhD (she/her/hers)

Senior Manager for Education and Partnerships at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, MPI Outreach Core at the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Affiliate Faculty at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health.

Katia is the course lead- instructor. She has more than 20 years of experience as a practitioner, researcher, and educator in Human Factors/Ergonomics and workplace injury/disability prevention. Her experience includes the design and implementation of several types of workplace prevention programs —whether focused on system ergonomics or managing illnesses/injuries. Over the last nine years, she has been an active advocate for the application of the Total Worker Health approach vis-à-vis her educational activities, participation in several national and international committees, and consulting practice. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Therapy, a Master’s degree in Ergonomics and Biomechanics, and a PhD in Industrial Engineering. Additionally, she has completed a 3-year post-professional diploma in transdisciplinary research applied to work disability prevention and a post-doctoral research fellowship in evidence synthesis and program evaluation/implementation.

Dr. Tori Crain 

Dr. Crain is an associate professor of Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology at Portland State University. She also serves as the associate director of the Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) graduate training program. 

Tori graduated with her BA in Psychology from Whitworth University in 2009, and was fortunate to spend time working as a research assistant for the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University. She completed her master's and doctoral degrees in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology and Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) at Portland State University in 2015. Broadly, Dr. Crain's research examines topics related to occupational stress and health, with a specific emphasis on understanding the interplay among the three domains of life: work, nonwork, and sleep. 

Justin Molocznik, MS, CSP, CHST (he/him/his)

Safety Director, JTM Construction

Justin has over 15 years of occupational health and safety experience. He holds an MS in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Kansas State University including graduate work in Occupational Health Psychology. Justin currently serves as the President of the Board representing Construction with the Washington State Governors Conference. Additionally, he serves as the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Region I Vice-President and has previously served as Region I Area Director and president of the Puget Sound Chapter. He has also served on ASSP’s Editorial Review Board for “Professional Safety Journal” and is currently the author of “Good to Know” featured bi-monthly in the journal.

Naomi DuCharme (she/her/hers)

Founder, Principal Consultant & Coach, Integrating Wellness Solutions

With over 20 years of management experience and a decade dedicated to occupational safety and health within the private construction and energy sectors, Naomi is deeply committed to advancing health, safety, and wellbeing in her home state of Alaska. Naomi offers Workplace Wellbeing Consulting, grounded in TWH, as well as Leadership & Recovery Coaching as an integrated approach to not only transform the systems that shape our workplaces, but create a supportive space for the leaders behind the systems to transform as well.

Accreditation:

A certificate of completion for Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) will be awarded following course completion. 

Additional professional development credit available upon request:

• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
• Certified Public Health Professionals (CPH)
• Certified Safety Professionals (CSP)