Kristie Z. Howard, CEBS, CWP
of Longfellow Benefits
 Senior Consultant, Employee Benefits
Certified Wellness Program Director
In May 2010, Boston Business Journal lauded Longfellow Benefits, the Boston-based corporate employee benefits consulting firm, for winning recognition (yet again) as one of the city’s best places to work. Contributing to the criteria for this recent honor was the work of Senior Consultant Kristie Z. Howard in the form of Longfellow’s showcase internal wellness program.
As Longfellow’s Certified Wellness Program Director (CWPD), Kristie is dedicated to overseeing the health and wellbeing of Longfellow’s employees. In March 2008, she launched Longfellow’s wellness program with a “walking challenge,” where employees wear pedometers that track their daily steps and compete in teams to win prizes. The program has flourished ever since. It now includes company-wide fitness challenges, nutrition advice, stress management exercises and more. Further, Kristie serves as a wellness resource for Longfellow’s corporate clients, teaching everything from program design and vendor selection, to ongoing communication and the evaluation of outcomes.
“It’s really important for [Longfellow] to not only set a good example, but to learn from experience and be able to share that with our clients,” Kristie remarked to a reporter in a September 2010 article profiling the Longfellow program in Employee Benefits Advisor. The program thus also serves as an internal tool for fine-tuning Longfellow’s expertise in service of its clients.
Since joining the firm in August of 2007, Kristie has steadily worked hard to become a recognized go-to authority in such areas as self-funded health programs, worksite wellness initiatives, and consumer-driven health plans. She is currently involved, for example, with co-founding the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts whose mission is to foster worksite health promotion programs that help Massachusetts employers positively impact medical expenses, healthcare utilization, employee recruitment and retention, absenteeism, productivity and company image.
In addition Kristie also writes articles for publication in business and industry journals including her most recent article “Don’t Just Jump Into Wellness: Marketing Your Wellness Program,” featured in the June 2010 issue of Employee Benefits News. She also wrote an informative piece that appeared in Risk + Insurance magazine in February of 2010 titled “Proven Employer Strategies for Battling Obesity” as well as articles for Convenience Store News, Women’s Business and Compensation.BLR.com.
As a Senior Consultant at Longfellow, Kristie designs and manages cost-effective benefit programs. Her success derives from a willingness to experiment, conduct research, publish findings, and lead open discussions with her colleagues and clients on what works and what doesn’t work.
A graduate of Emory University with a BA in Psychology, Kristie holds a Massachusetts Life, Accident & Health Producers license, a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) designation and is a member of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists (ISCEBS), the New England Employee Benefits Council and the Wellness Councils of America.
To learn more about Longfellow Benefits or to read Kristie’s articles, click here.
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