The first time I met Dr. Remy Shanker was at the Spring Student Activities Fest. I was representing Ecoherence in the West Forum, with huge Dunkin Donuts boxes strategically set up as bait. Shanker walked up to me, introduced herself cheerfully and charmed me as she praised Ecoherence’s efforts. She spoke passionately about sustainable food, while eyeing the Dunkin Donuts boxes with great disapproval.

Shanker joined NYU Abu Dhabi’s newly established Wellness Department as the Wellness Program Specialist last November. Born and raised in the region, she fondly calls Dubai home. Her desire to work on wellness at institutions of higher education is what brought her to NYUAD. She is trained as a medical doctor, with a Masters in Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition from Manipal University.

“This is my first time in higher education. It’s pretty phenomenal […] finding out the various aspects of higher-ed and how we can be part of the greater picture of shaping the youth, from a wellness perspective,” Shanker shared as she elaborated on how wildly different the NYUAD environment is, compared to her background in the corporate industry. “In the [higher education] scenario, people want to be more proactive. It’s more about shaping your life. Students tend to be so much more receptive.”

Having previously worked at Right Bite, VLCC and numerous other wellness corporations, Shanker has spearheaded and initiated wellness programs for multiple Fortune 500 companies in the region, as well as educational institutions such as the American University of Sharjah.

“Here, it is so much more flexible. There is so much more room for creativity. There is so much more room for change,” she expressed enthusiastically.

The newly founded Wellness Department encompasses the Health Promotion Office (HPO) and Fitness Center, and is actively liaising with the Health Center and the Student Government Health Advisory Committee in an effort to include all stakeholders of the NYUAD community.

When asked to describe the relationship between the Health Center and the Wellness Department, Shanker responded, “The Health Center exists as a support system for clinical issues. The Wellness Department was formed distinctly so that we could be proactive instead of reactive. We want to be more preventive by enabling and empowering people with tools to take charge of their own wellness. We want to make the process more heuristic.”

Shanker has been incredibly involved on campus and has been actively pushing the wellness agenda on multiple fronts. From holding listening sessions to organizing numerous focus groups to better understand the wellness climate on campus, Shanker takes student feedback quite seriously: “There are some very powerful topics that come up such as dining on campus […] We have also been talking about women’s health issues, over-programming on campus, etc.”

Actively collaborating with ADNH Compass and the Campus Dining staff, Shanker plans to pilot a program to make food on campus more wholesome, accessible and budget-friendly. She further hopes to cater specifically to large-scale Student Interest Group events and to try to move away from NYUAD’s popular takeout choice of KFC.

On ADNH’s recent move to not accept meal swipes for the D2 Starbucks, Shanker commented, “People might feel that ADNH is reducing their purchasing power or infringing upon their freedom to purchase […] but from a wellness perspective, the whole point of a meal swipe was to provide a balanced meal. Again, we are not taking away coffee from you […] there is the Library Café [and] there is Blacksmith. It’s not cancel culture.”

Shanker believes in an environment like that of NYUAD — where the “creme de la creme'' of students come from diverse backgrounds to “swim in a sea of greatness” — mental health issues are inevitable. Shanker understands that mental health resources have always been scarce on campus and she plans to change that.

“If we can provide or mobilize other resources around campus, like REACH, we could focus more on harm reduction, and emphasize mental wellness to eliminate mental health issues,” she commented.

One of Shanker’s many priorities is sustainability. For “Go Green Week”, she has facilitated a collaboration with the SIG Veggie Might, encouraging plant-based diets. Quite admirably, she aims to shift the Wellness Department’s marketing to entirely digital platforms and reduce the department’s paper and plastic usage. Shanker also partnered with the Dean’s Majlis to bring more sustainable and healthy food options.

While discussing her long term plans for the Wellness Department, she said, “This might sound overly ambitious, but down the line, I would like to empower RAs with certain skills and tools, instead of condoning actions or punitive actions, to better the residents’ health and wellness [...] we have been working closely with [Residential Education] and maybe making a coaching mechanism where people could seek help without actually having to go to a counselor. Maybe you just want to see a sounding board; that’s something we want to mobilize.”

In a brief period of time, Shanker has become thoroughly engaged with and responsive to the needs of the student body, as she actively works to redefine wellness on campus. From making smaller changes like removing gummy bears from the Convenience Store checkout counters to focusing on larger institutional and community-wide issues like dining and mental health, it is clear that the Wellness Department’s priorities are aligned with the wellbeing of the wider community.