Workshop 1: Securing Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Employee Wellness as the Foundation For Student Wellness

February 10, 2026 | 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

As faculty and staff in higher education, we can only meet students’ accessibility needs when our own needs are met first. Yet cultural, institutional, and personal barriers often impede our self-advocacy, leading to burnout and leaving us ill-equipped to create meaningful community care in our classrooms.

This 90-minute, participatory workshop is the first in a two-part series exploring the vital connection between employee and student flourishing. Through stories and reflective practices, we’ll:

• Examine how common accessibility barriers can make getting our needs met feel impossible
• Develop concrete short- and long-term plans for self- and community-advocacy around wellness

This workshop sets the foundation for workshop 2 two, where we’ll collaborate on strategies for securing the masks for our students. It is designed for disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically-ill faculty and student services staff, though adaptable for anyone seeking to balance their accessibility needs with those of the populations they serve.

Workshop 2: Then Securing the Mask for Our Students: Planning for Collaborative Care in Higher Education

February 24, 2026 | 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Ready to shift from individualized accessibility to collaborative care? This workshop helps you develop practical strategies for balancing your accessibility needs with those of your students.

Come prepared with a real ‘sticky situation’ from your context – a moment when your accessibility needs clashed with students’, or where you anticipate future challenges. Through stories and hands-on collaboration, we’ll:

• Reframe relational dynamics in our situations to strategize solutions rooted in collaborative care
• Leave with one concrete strategy and a plan for how to implement it in your own context to help ensure both you and your students have your oxygen masks secured (or better yet, create conditions that keep the plane from going down in the first place!)

This 90-minute workshop is the second in our two-part series on employee and student flourishing. While participation in the first workshop is strongly advised, it’s not required. Don’t have a sticky situation? Don’t worry. You’ll be able to collaborate with others to ensure you can still participate meaningfully in the experiential learning.

Registration Coming Soon

These sessions may be recorded, archived, and shared after the event. 

About the Facilitator

Natalie Wigg-Stevenson is Associate Professor of Theology and Contextual Education at Emmanuel College, Victoria University (University of Toronto). While her research focuses on ethnographic approaches to theology, her pedagogical passion lies in decolonizing and ‘cripping’ classrooms through more relationally-rooted teaching and learning design. As a neurodivergent scholar living with chronic illness, she brings both personal insight and professional expertise to helping faculty and staff in higher education not just survive but thrive in their work with students.