Chelsey Hundley,
Weston Career Center in Olin Business School
A Wellness Champion since the fall of 2018, Chelsey continually approaches her role with a positive attitude and enthusiasm. She’s great at building and maintaining relationships with her colleagues, and they know they can go to her for resources and with their questions.
This year, Chelsey is helping Wellness Connection pilot a Human Centered Design approach to personalize wellness for her group’s unique culture. She also joined the Champion Leadership group and has been integral in launching a monthly webinar series that is available to all WashU employees.
I had the great pleasure of chatting with Chelsey and learning more about her interest in wellness and how she positively influences the culture in her department.
Tell us about some things you’ve done as a Wellness Champion to help create a culture of wellness in your department.
Aside from the typical monthly announcements at staff meetings and updating the bulletin board (when we are in our physical space), I have:
-
- Led three wellness challenge teams as a captain and periodically organized walking sessions together;
- Created an updated COVID resources Wellness Connection presentation, then invited fellow coaches to share their best practices to help fellow staff members generate ideas for how to practice self-care in quarantine; and
- I’m currently working with my supervisor to take a data-driven approach to staff wellbeing that will hopefully eventually inform best practices in the workplace.
What motivates you to volunteer as a Wellness Champion?
I have taken advantage of the wellness resources at other institutions and had personally experienced the benefits to my own health. When I came to WashU I was inspired to dive right in and volunteer to be a champion for my department so that I could share the latest resources with my colleagues, since being aware of what is out there is half the battle!
I also serve on our staff’s Professional Development Committee and Fun Committee, working to provide opportunities for professional growth and fostering personal connections, respectively.
Are there any unique aspects of your department that affect your role as Wellness Champion?
My department is made up of roughly 40 staff members who are all serving in various capacities. This means I can go days without seeing many people that are not on my same team as we are wrapped up in our day to day tasks. I am fortunate that we have an All Staff Meeting in the books every month and our Director is super supportive of allowing me to take a couple of minutes to update everyone on Wellness Connection happenings. I’ve also been provided a coveted bulletin board space in the break room to share wellness resources.
How has COVID-19 affected your role as a Champion?
In some ways, the pandemic has really helped me feel like I was having a stronger impact as a Wellness Champion. I have had a couple of conversations with colleagues who have asked for resources on how to maintain wellbeing during these unprecedented times with interrupted daily life schedules. I have been more than happy to share some of the things I have been doing as well as the updated resources that Wellness Connections has offered during this time, and I felt fulfilled knowing I had projected a welcoming environment where colleagues felt comfortable approaching me and sharing personal aspects of themselves and the challenges they are facing. I love being able to support my team!
Chelsey, thank you for sharing your story and working with your colleagues to foster a culture of health and wellness in your work area.
If you’d like to learn more about the Wellness Connection Champion network, check out our website: hr.wustl.edu/wellness-connection/champions/.