Chris Booth

Christopher Booth says he owes the University of Miami a debt he can never repay. “I met my wife Melissa here when she was a student employee at the Patti and Allan Herbert Wellness Center,” says Booth, now a budget analyst at the Coral Gables center. Booth tries, though, by donating to the Department of Athletics’ scholarship fund as well as to United Way. “I want to help our teams succeed against the bigger schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference,” he says.

Growing up in West Virginia, Booth enjoyed baseball, hockey, and competitive roller-skating. He came to UM in 1994, earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and has worked at the Herbert Wellness Center since the day it opened in 1996. “Initially, I was a membership assistant, and I came on board full time in the spring of 1998,” he says. Now, Booth is in charge of purchasing, budget analysis, and managing daily cash operations for the center, which is open seven days a week.

“Our University has made a great investment in supporting healthy lifestyles,” he says, “and the Herbert Wellness Center is a wonderful benefit to the UM community.”

Along with working out four or five times a week, Booth enjoys watching ’Canes basketball, baseball, and football games with his wife, who earned her bachelor of arts in 2001, and his sister, J-Me Booth, another ’Cane who earned her bachelor of business administration in 2000. “We try to go to as many games as we can—even when I have to get up early for work,” he says.

Looking back, Booth is glad the U has been central to his life for the past 20 years—and he remains determined to at least try to pay off that debt. “All of us who work here are contributing to advance our University’s mission of educational excellence,” he says. “I believe that we should all give back in some way, large or small, to help keep UM moving forward.”