CONVERSATIONS WITH MARY WISNOM
BY MAE MAÑACAP-JOHNSON
According to Mary Wisnom, professor and spa management
coordinator at the School of Resort and Hospitality Management at
Florida Gulf Coast University, leaders in the spa and wellness industry
have repeatedly identified a need for comprehensive text resources to
support education in the spa industry. In response, Wisnom and ISPA
have partnered to develop the ISPA Academy, a searchable online library
that will provide spa professionals a one-stop access to industry
research, job descriptions, educational resources and glossary of terms.
To help gather information, spa professional volunteers were enlisted
as authors. The Wikipedia-style website, set to launch in early 2017,
will provide the spa community easy access to spa information to help
broaden one’s knowledge.
In this Pulse Conversation, Wisnom talks about the benefits of the
resource and why the spa community should support the project by
becoming an author and sharing their expertise and knowledge.
PULSE: What sparked the idea to develop the ISPA
P: Walk us through the steps you have taken to get
Academy?
the project off the ground?
Mary Wisnom: In 2013, 25 international spa leaders
W: I spent most of 2015 reviewing the existing literature,
serving on a Spa Certification/Education Task Force worked
determining the elements essential toward developing a
to identify the critical industry “body of
comprehensive spa offerings resource, and
knowledge” and related spa management
ultimately, developing the tools to collect the
resources. At the conclusion of its charge,
needed information and monitor the
Become an Au
the task force identified a lack of an allproject. In early 2016, the ISPA team
thor!
S
h
a
re
y
our knowledg
inclusive resource on spa services and
first reached out to the Volunteer
e
and passion. V
treatments for spa managers.
Committee to recruit our initial group
olunteer to be
a
n author of IS
Presently, there are texts available that
of entry authors, and as word spread,
PA's online
library. To lea
address certain spa offering segments,
others joined the project.
rn more on ho
w
yet nothing comprehensive.
you can be inv
o
lv
ed ,
Both ISPA President Lynne McNees
P: How exactly are these
email ispa@isp
a
st
a
ff.com
and I served on the task force and our
volunteer authors involved?
conversations about a missing spa offerings
W: Once an author shows interest, they
resource continued well after the task force
select from our growing list of 185 spa offering
ended. In 2014, I reached out to her to discuss how
topics. They are then provided with all the materials
ISPA might tackle this challenge. I had the opportunity for a
they will need to complete their entry. Authors then select a
sabbatical in 2015 and wanted to know if they thought this
submission date and start their work. I serve as primary contact
might be an opportune time to take on the project. After
for each of the authors, encouraging, supplying support when
several discussions and conversations with ISPA leaders and
needed, monitoring deadlines, editing the entry submissions,
publishers, we came up with the idea and a framework to
and preparing the final edited version for the website.
create the ISPA Academy.
To date, 27 entry submissions have been reviewed, edited,
24
PULSE
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November 2016