Countering Wellness Bias Through Wellness-Legal Partnerships

On-Demand Webinar

Any sound wellness program can be susceptible to bias, implicit or otherwise. Whether it manifests in the measures used to gather health data (such as BMI), the activities provided (such as yoga or meditation), or the goals set (such as through body image stereotypes), wellness program bias is often the biggest obstacle to fostering a true culture of wellbeing. 


To combat bias and improve employee wellbeing, wellness needs to look beyond individual behaviors and turn upstream to root causes of poor wellbeing, such as social and structural drivers of health. Wellness-legal partnerships (WLPs) are a powerful tool that corporate wellness programs can harness to further that goal.

This webinar will discuss how workplace wellness programs may inadvertently incorporate racial or disability bias and how they can overcome that bias, at least in part, through WLPs. 

During this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Recognize potential bias in workplace wellness programming
• Understand the social and structural drivers of health and wellbeing
• Discover how wellness-legal partnerships could assist in addressing social and structural drivers of health and wellbeing

About Our Presenter

Barbara J. Zabawa

Attorney Barbara J. Zabawa is an industry expert on health and wellness law topics, licensed to practice law in both Wisconsin and New York. She is the founder and President of the Center for Health and Wellness Law, LLC, a law firm dedicated to improving legal access and compliance for the health and wellness industries. She is also the lead author of the book, Rule the Rules on Workplace Wellness Programs, published by the American Bar Association, and a frequent speaker on health and wellness law topics, having presented for national organizations such as WELCOA, National Wellness Conference, HPLive, Healthstat University, and HERO.

Before graduating with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School, Barbara obtained an MPH degree from the University of Michigan. Prior to starting her own firm, she was Associate General Counsel and HIPAA Privacy Officer for a large health insurer where she advised on the Affordable Care Act. She was also a shareholder and Health Law Team Leader at a large Wisconsin law firm and founded the Wellness Compliance Institute, a nonprofit organization seeking to improve wellness program and activity compliance.

Barbara serves health and wellness professionals and organizations across the country as an advocate, transactional lawyer, and compliance resource. She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor for the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee College of Health Sciences, Department of Health Services Administration, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in health law and compliance, US healthcare delivery, and health professions career development. Barbara currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Wellness Institute and Rogers Behavioral Health System.