Preston Wellness Company is backed by decades of experience in the wellness industry. The team behind Preston Wellness Co. is able to offer tried and true approaches with programs that get results.
Dayton Preston
Dayton has worked in the employee wellness industry for over 30 years designing programs that have resulted in decreased medical claims spending for populations.
- BSEd in Exercise Science
- American College of Sports Medicine EPC
- 8 years with AT&T in Employee Health Promotion
- 23 years as a corporate wellness consultant for the following:
- Columbus Regional Healthcare System
- Midtown Medical Center
- Doctors Hospital
- Northside Medical Center
- Hughston Sports Medicine Hospital
- Cessna Aircraft
- Services also provided for AFLAC and TSYS
A Message from Dayton
Fresh out of my undergraduate, I had my dream job land in my lap without a lot of understanding of what was to come. This was in 1990 and wellness promotion for employees was all over the map in terms of how it was defined and offered. As my first employer in this field, AT&T was at the forefront of the industry in terms of thinking out of the box. Coming from an athletic background and being surrounded by “well” people all my life, my eyes were opened to the need for variety and adaptability in health promoting services to different populations. I can say that I was fascinated by the potential to make serious changes in the lives of employees and health of the company.
Right out of the gate, I noticed how hungry employees were for shortcuts to achieving better health due to a commercial market that was often trying to sell an easier way. By 1990, the weight loss industry in particular had about 10 years under its belt of aggressive commercialized success while at the same time our national obesity rates increased. Employees were confused and turning away from sound practices because of all the mixed messages. Being a debater by nature, I loved the challenge. I noticed an extreme need to educate populations on how to get wellness right and avoid the pitfalls of hype-based junk science. By junk science, I mean programs and products that would take a sliver of truth and turn it into the “secret” to “easy” health as a “breakthrough”. My sense of urgency with this was the fact that when a program or product failed to produce results, it meant that people were being pushed further away from sound efforts because of chronic frustration. Getting them back to evidence-based health science was going to be a challenge.
What I did not realize is that this would become a lifelong battle in the field of wellness. In an unregulated industry, the legitimate wellness field constantly has to redirect populations away from actions that waste time, money, and effort… often times also jeopardizing their health. In other words, the need was monumental for constant direction.
And this opened my eyes to the fact that this field is not for everyone. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of cheerleaders come and go once they gained an understanding that wellness programs that are focused on fun and games impact only a small percentage of populations. So, this made me even more hungry to embed myself in this fairly new profession. I thought I had a lot more answers than I actually did and over the years, I’ve learned something new almost every day. I can say that there are no know-it-alls in this field but there are a lot of people who claim to be.
All this leads to my motivation to operate as a wellness consultant. After whittling down what works to properly manage medical claim trends and produce healthy outcomes, this approach to corporate wellness needs to be relayed to the masses. As a father, I cringe at the thought of healthcare in the future if things don’t change. We have a great opportunity here and I hope my input will serve you well in starting or growing your wellness services.
Karen Preston
Karen has over 20 years of experience in the wellness and fitness industry specializing in program development and administration.
- BS in Exercise Science
- Certification and programming guidelines designer for national fitness studios
- Development and direction of community health programs
- Consultant for startup wellness clinics
