Risa Wilkerson

Project Officer

Office: 919-843-3519
risa_wilkerson@unc.edu

Bio

Risa Wilkerson, Project Officer for Active Living By Design (ALBD), provides coaching, technical assistance and grant oversight to multidisciplinary community-based partnerships across the country. These partnerships promote active living and healthy eating through policy and environmental interventions. Risa helps facilitate learning networks and develop tools and resources. She also serves as the Steering Committee Chair of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and advises Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota's Active Living Minnesota initiative.

Risa notes, "I love that a good solution solves many problems. We emphasize health benefits, but creating healthy communities also improves the economy, creates a greener environment and strengthens social capital. Many things I care about are rolled into this work." She brings wide-ranging experience in coalition building, community assessment, public health program planning and implementation, grant writing and nonprofit management.

Previously, Risa was the Vice President of Active Communities for the Michigan Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports, where she led project teams in a statewide effort to create active communities; initiatives included Promoting Active Communities, Safe Routes to School, and community-based demonstration projects. Before that, she led a regional non-profit where she inspired the Board to refocus from short-term programming (5-K runs, health fairs and promotions) to long-term, systemic change.

Risa holds a B.A. in communication from Spring Arbor University and a M.A. in communication from Michigan State University. She is also an alumnus of the University of South Carolina's Physical Activity and Public Health Course, a training sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Risa walks to work daily and enjoys running with her 100-pound dog, spending time with her husband and eating the amazing locally-grown food in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. She is a proud parent of two grown children who are pursuing careers in industrial design and international work, respectively.

Active Living / Healthy Eating Story

I grew up in a small rural community in Michigan where one yellow blinking light and a few stop signs were the extent of traffic calming.  Complete streets there meant roads accommodated the horses and buggies of local Amish, school busses, farm equipment and cars. Every street had sidewalks and the pace was slow. In-town students typically walked or biked to school, at least until they turned 16. Small dairy, hog and chicken farms were prevalent. My parents and many others had gardens and people readily shared their harvests. I love fresh tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. It was easy to eat healthy foods and be active there. Since then I have lived in several places where active living was not as easy and I missed the benefits and pleasures of walking many places. So when I moved to North Carolina, I rented a place close to work. I love the convenience, flexibility and opportunity to be outdoors every day. We were able to sell our second car so we're saving money too. Now, I walk to the farmer's market, the local co-op grocery, the movies and to meet friends for coffee. I believe everyone should have such freedom and opportunity, starting with the walk to school.