MUSC’s Center for Workplace Well-being, led by the Enterprise Interim Chief Well-being Officer, Megan Hays, Ph.D., includes a diverse team of experts, both clinical and administrative, whose work focuses on fostering an environment that enables our employees and learners to thrive. To achieve this mission, the Center uses a three-pronged approach to workplace well-being, adapted from the Stanford Model of Professional Fulfillment, to guide all programmatic efforts. This comprehensive framework, including Personal Well-being, Culture of Well-being, and Efficiency of Work – or Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff (GROSS) – facilitates alignment between strategic efforts and the real mental health and well-being needs of our people.
MUSC employees: visit the Well-being Collective
Megan Hays, Ph.D., ABPP, serves as Interim Enterprise Chief Well-being Officer for the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where she leads Enterprise-wide strategies to promote mental health and well-being for more than 34,000 employees and learners. She oversees MUSC’s Center for Workplace Well-being, which delivers a comprehensive portfolio of programs including Stress First Aid training, Peer Support, Well-being Clinician services, and organizational consultation to advance psychological safety, belonging, and engagement.
Dr. Hays is a licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified rehabilitation psychologist through the American Board of Professional Psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Florida and completed fellowship training in Rehabilitation Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine. Before joining MUSC, she spent over a decade at UAB Medicine, where she served as an associate professor and Director of Wellness Education, developing systemwide initiatives to support workforce well-being and collaborating with executive leadership on strategic culture change.
She is a Fellow of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and has served on the boards of the American Board of Rehabilitation Psychology and AACVPR. A frequent speaker and educator, Dr. Hays teaches nationally on topics such as psychological safety, burnout prevention, and workplace culture, with a focus on evidence-based strategies to create environments where employees and learners can thrive.
Emma Jellen serves as the Executive Director of Enterprise Well-being Strategy and Operations within the Center for Workplace Well-being, where she leads enterprise-wide efforts to advance workforce well-being. In this role, she provides strategic leadership, operational oversight, and cross-enterprise coordination to support MUSC’s well-being priorities. Her work focuses on aligning organizational goals with scalable, evidence-informed programs that enhance well-being, engagement, and overall effectiveness.
Emma partners closely with senior leadership and cross-functional teams to translate well-being research and best practices into actionable, sustainable initiatives that support clinicians, faculty, staff, and learners. She oversees program strategy, infrastructure, and evaluation efforts to ensure initiatives are data-informed, impactful, and responsive to evolving workforce needs. A central focus of her work is fostering collaboration across the enterprise and with external partners to strengthen a culture of well-being and drive meaningful, measurable outcomes.
Prior to joining MUSC, Emma co-led the Center for Workplace Mental Health at the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, where she developed national tools and training to support workforce mental health. She led initiatives including Notice. Talk. Act.® at Work and FRONTLINE CONNECT: Mental Health for the Healthcare Workforce, supporting health systems in advancing clinician well-being. She has also held leadership roles in national healthcare organizations, contributing to policy, education, and system-level initiatives aimed at improving care and outcomes.
Emma holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Clemson University and brings deep expertise in workplace mental health, healthcare workforce well-being, and system-level strategy.
