September 2026 BeWell Wednesday Webinar: Mindful Making
Join us for the September BeWell Wednesday event, “Mindful Making,” on September 16, 2026, from 2:00-3:00 p.m., eastern time!
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
During the session, you will hear from five panelists who are all involved in various making practices, including crochet, knitting, sketching, sewing and blacksmithing. Questions will focus on how the act of making can support mindfulness, reduce stress, and foster a sense of connection. Below are brief bios about each of the panelists.
Lin Wu is a professor, librarian, researcher, and lifelong maker. She serves as Assistant Director for Research & Learning Services at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Health Sciences Library. While her professional work centers on supporting research, teaching, evidence synthesis, and scholarly communication, her favorite creative practice is sewing. Lin especially enjoys transforming meaningful T-shirts into blankets, combining creativity, craftsmanship, and storytelling. For her, sewing is both a creative outlet and a mindfulness practice, offering a way to slow down, recharge, and bring joy to others.
Shalu Gillum is Head of Public Services and an Associate Medical Librarian at the UCF College of Medicine. Outside of work (and often during lunch breaks), she is often found with knitting needles in hand, working on her latest project. Knitting has become a source of relaxation, mindfulness, and balance in her life. Shalu enjoys exploring the connection between crafting and well-being and looks forward to sharing how knitting has supported her own mental health journey.
Lisa Ennis, DrPH, MPH, MS, MA, is Dean of the Gregg-Graniteville Library and Director of the Student Success Center at the University of South Carolina Aiken. Her public health research interests include environmental health, wellness, and the connections between our environments and well-being. A lifelong sketcher, Lisa keeps a regular sketchbook to slow down, observe, and make space for creativity in a busy professional life. Her sketchbook practice focuses less on creating finished artwork and more on noticing, experimenting, and enjoying the act of sketching.
Christiana Keinath is the health sciences librarian at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. She has a bachelor’s in biology from the University of South Carolina and received her MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In her current role, she provides reference, instruction, and evidence synthesis support to nursing, public health, physical therapy, and other health sciences disciplines. Keinath attended public arts magnet schools and has been drawn to arts and crafts since she was old enough to be trusted not to eat crayons. She completed a scientific illustration project for her undergraduate thesis at USC. Her current favorite creative hobby is crochet, and she also enjoys doodling, coloring, mending, hand sewing, and very beginner knitting.
Trevor Wylie is the Collections Strategies Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he oversees vendor relations and licensing agreements. Previously, he served as a collection development consultant for several vendors in the academic library space and maintains a healthy professional interest in altmetrics and Small Language Model (SLM) workflows. Outside the library, he is an ornamental blacksmith and will happily explain why hitting fiery metal with a hammer is good for you. When not doing that, he plays blues guitar and preaches against social media use to anyone who will look up from their device.
We hope you leave the webinar inspired to start or continue your own making practice!