NIU will add a new program this year to deal with employee-related problems.

Deborah Haliczer will be the coordinator of NIU’s Employee Wellness and Assistance Program.

The EWAP program originally began in corporations to help employees with alcohol and drug abuse, said Nick Noe, director of institutional research at NIU.

“Private organizations have found these programs to be very beneficial,” Noe said.

However, only about 25 percent of all higher education universities have these programs, Noe also said.

Noe was the head of a search committee which selected the six finalists from which Haliczer was chosen. She accepted the job in the second week of March.

Haliczer currently is the program director of DeKalb County’s Family Service Agency. She will leave April 26 and will begin as EWAP director May 1.

Noe said this program will help NIU because there is currently no central point for an employee who has a problem to go to.

“The literature indicates that the program implemented has been very beneficial to employees (elsewhere) and it’s also reduced the time people are away from the job,” Noe said.

Haliczer said one of her first tasks will be assessing the needs of employees. She will interview a selection of employees and other staff members, she said.

Haliczer has a master’s degree in history from NIU along with a bachelor’s degree in history and French, secondary school certification and a master’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.