Virginia Peninsula Community College President Dr. Towuanna Porter Brannon is using her annual “Tea with Dr. B” series to explore well-being related to mental, emotional and relationship health. It’s appropriate since the College has designated the 2024-25 academic calendar as the “Year of Well-Being.”
The first event of the President’s Leadership series, which is starting its third year, will be held on the Hampton Campus on Tuesday, Oct. 1, from 1-2:30 p.m. in Hampton IV, Room 4136. The panelists are Kevin Joyce, a licensed professional counselor; David Coffey, head of the Criminal Justice program at VPCC and an attorney; and Chris Moore, director of athletics at VPCC and mentor for The Shop, a program geared toward minority men at the College.
The focus will be on men's health and well-being, with panelists discussing challenges individuals who identify as boys and men are facing in 2024. Those challenges include undiagnosed mental illness and suicide rates among males, the latter of which are on the rise; growing up without a steady male role model or lacking a variety of positive male influencers; social messages about what it means "to be a man" and how those message can lead to suppression of emotion and /or a lack of real purpose; and fewer men are entering higher education than ever before.
Please RSVP by 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, to ensure an accurate headcount
for seating and catering. The RSVP form is available here: https://forms.gle/3ZiimiVZQiRh2ezDA.
For more on the College, visit www.vpcc.edu.