About Us
Farm Well Wisconsin partners with farmers and other community members to support well-being.
Farming involves both ordinary and extraordinary challenges and stressors including unexpected weather events, ever changing trade and tariff policies, shifting consumer preferences, and worry about the health and well-being of livestock and employees. Taken together these challenges form the backdrop to daily farm life.
Farmers are known to be hardworking, conscientious, gritty people. Often, however, they put their own health and well-being on the back burner. At Farm Well Wisconsin we believe cultivating habits that support the health and well-being of all aspects of the farming operation, including physical health, behavioral health, and financial health, is the key to success.
Farm Well Wisconsin focuses on building social connections in rural communities. We use a multipronged approach that:
We invite you to explore our resources and to contribute to our community of farm families by commenting on posts, recipes, and videos.
Our Team:
Program Coordinator, Farm Well Wisconsin
Shawn Monson
Shawn takes care of the day-to-day operations for Farm Well. He creates the Farm Well Newsletter, which includes finding farm features and writing research supported methods for self-improving our readers levels of wellness. He co-facilitates trainings and workshops when the opportunity presents itself. Shawn creates content for the Facebook and Instagram social media pages as well. Please give them and the newsletter a follow if you would like to get regular updates about Farm Well WI happenings. Shawn also worked with two other programs through SWCAP called Project Recovery and Communities Confronting COVID-19 (C3). Shawn grew up on a dairy farm north of Barneveld, WI and now lives on his grandparent's farm with his girlfriend (Molly) and dog (Stevie). He earned his B.S. in Health & Wellness Management from UW-Stevens Point.
Community Wellness Group Director, Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program
Chris Frakes
Chris's concern about the plight of family farms began in her home state of Iowa during the farm crisis of the 1980s as she watched neighbors and relatives struggle with seemingly insurmountable farm stressors. She earned a Masters of Divinity in 1994 with the intention of serving rural communities, aware of both the stigma associated with seeking mental and behavioral health services and the scarcity of mental and behavioral health resources available in smaller, rural communities. Chris went on to complete a PhD in 2004, focusing her work in ethics and sustainable farming and food production. Since 2018 Chris has worked with SWCAP on a number of initiatives designed to support farmers, farmworkers, and their families.
Extension Agricultural Safety & Health Specialist and Professor University of Wisconsin – Madison, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
John Shutske
John has spent 35 years serving agricultural communities, working in partnership on educational programs, research, and developing networks of stakeholders interested in rural health, injury prevention, child safety, and mental health.
He grew up on a family farm in Indiana, and studied agricultural mechanization and technology at Purdue before going onto grad school to earn a degree in agricultural safety engineering and risk control. John spent three years with the farm bureau insurance affiliates in Illinois, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada into the early 1990s before becoming a faculty member and Extension safety and health specialist at the University of Minnesota (for 18 years). He moved his family to Wisconsin in 2008 for a similar position at UW-Madison and to be closer to the home farm. In recent years, John has worked extensively nationwide as an educator and consultant to support farmers and farm workers in 40+ states, working with organizations like the USDA Farm Service Agency, American Farm Bureau, and the National Farmers Union. John also holds an affiliate Professor Appointment in the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW.”
Amy Washbush
Amy Washbush is the Associate Director of Engaged Research for the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With experience as a community-based researcher and evaluator, Amy leads teams of students and staff in applied projects that answer the questions and inform the efforts of nonprofit organizations and groups working to improve their local communities. Amy is a former K-12 teacher with Master’s and doctoral degrees in Human Ecology. As a Wisconsinite and the granddaughter of one farming grandfather and another grandfather with lifelong mental health struggles, Amy is happy to offer her skills to the Farm Well Wisconsin team as the project evaluator.
Our Partners:
Dan Wegmueller
Visit http://farmforthought.org to read Dan's blog and listen to his podcasts.
Elizabeth Andekian
Join Us: Are you interested in supporting and promoting health and wellbeing within our farming and rural communities? Join us! We are seeking additional members of our Farmer Wellness Advisory Coalitions (FWAC). FWAC members utilize their local expertise regarding the assets and needs that exist in their communities to help plan, guide, and implement regional training, education, and community building strategies.
Funding: Farm Well is funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health through its Community Impact Grants Program.