Employee Assistance Office to get new leader

Joshua Schiffman has been hired as the new director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Employee Assistance Office.

Schiffman currently serves on the counseling faculty at Madison Area Technical College and has been a psychologist in private practice for several years. From 2005 to 2007, Schiffman was an instructor in the UW–Madison Psychology Department, teaching a course in research methods, and the Educational Psychology Department. In his postdoctoral work, he provided counseling, psychotherapy and clinical assessments to members of the UW–Madison community. He earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and music from Oberlin College, and a PhD in counseling psychology from the State University of New York College at Buffalo.

“I am excited to be joining the UW–Madison community and connecting with our unit’s outstanding partners across the campus,” Schiffman says. “The EAO is an important resource for employee health and well-being, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue and enhance the excellent services offered by the EAO.”

Schiffman will replace Sherry Boeger, who announced her retirement earlier this year after 12 years with the university. Schiffman will join the university on July 19.

“We thank Sherry for her excellent leadership and passionate service to the UW–Madison community. Joshua’s experience and background is an excellent addition to our campus community and he will do an outstanding job leading our employee assistance program,” says Mark Walters, associate vice chancellor for human resources.

The EAO director also serves as the UW–Madison account manager for the external Employee Assistance Program vendor and monitors both internal and external services’ performance. The EAO director reports to the UW–Madison associate vice chancellor for human resources and manages the EAO.

EAO provides counseling and consultation at no cost to UW–Madison faculty, staff, graduate student employees, significant others, and family members. Services available through EAO include personal counseling, workplace consultation and well-being coaching and training.