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VPCHRO Community Update January 18, 2024

Division of the vice president & chief human resources officer community update (background photo snow, glowing light)

Christine's Corner

Christine Lovely
Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

I've been thinking - we call ourselves the "HR Community," but what does it really mean to be a community? What's the difference between a community, and a bunch of people who see each other at meetings every now and then? And how do we build community across the HR function, with our colleauges at Weill Cornell HR, and all the departments of our division, including the Department of Inclusion and Belonging and the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX?

I feel that a sense of community grows from a sense of connection - of knowing and appreciating one another as people.

This past year we launched a number of ways to increase employees' sense of connection at work - like Coworker Coffee and WAGs (Workforce Affinity Groups), as well as within our HR Community - like the "Chit, Chat, Chew" sessions and our HR Community Viva Engage channel. 

To help build on these efforts, I'm excited to introduce this new quarterly newsletter. Each one will start with a brief message from me and some quick Q&As. Then we plan to feature team profiles, announce new colleagues and transitions, share info on what’s happening in our HR Community, and celebrate successes. We want to acknowledge that we may list events or programs that are not readily available to everyone, but we're committed to exploring ways to create inclusive engagement opportunities.

I look forward to hearing from you! Please read on, and send feedback, updates and shareables to HR Communications for our next issue in April.

- Christine

Q&A


Q: What are you reading?
A: I’m re-reading Heal Your Body, by Louise Hay and Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of us Have by Judith Viorst.

Q: Do you have a New Year’s resolution or theme?
A: I don’t do resolutions, but my theme word for 2024 is FOCUS.

Q: What HR trends are you watching?
A: I’m watching how artificial intelligence can be effectively utilized to make our work easier.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Chit, Chat, and Chew:
February 7, 2024
Noon - 1:00 pm
Virtual (Zoom Only)

Register Here

Welcome to the HR Community!

  • Ben Balkaya, Associate Dean for Administration for the School of Continuing Education, started October 16
  • Katherine King, AVP for the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX, started November 1
  • Vail Eubanks, Employee Recognition Program and Event Coordinator, started November 16
  • Erica Reniff, HR Generalist in Facilities and Campus Services, started December 1
  • Tiffany Wood, Director of Human Resources for eCornell, started December 11
  • Marie Maynard, Assistant to the AVP of HR, started December 15
  • Jessica Oren-Detweiler, Office Assistant for the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX, started January 2

Transitions

  • Daniel Hyland, Benefits Specialist in the HR Services and Transitions Center joined the Engineering HR as an HR Talent and Employee Engagement Partner in December
  • Omar Stoute, Equity and Title IX Investigator, accepted the position of Director for Staff Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Ithaca College. Omar’s last day at Cornell was January 5.
  • Ashley Miller, Employee Recognition Program and Events Coordinator’s last day was January 15.
  • Derek Fiacco of Cornell Wellness is leaving to serve as a nutritionist for a major league baseball team.
  • Keri Johnson, Wellness and Fitness Specialist at Cornell Wellness, has accepted a position with Omada Health.



Let us know of new hires and transitions, and we'll include them in the next issue.

Quick Coherence

If you were here for our June 2023 HR Community meeting with Paragon Performance Evolution, you may remember the mindfulness activity we learned called Quick Coherence. It’s a simple practice you can incorporate every day or when you need a little grounding.

There are three steps:

  • Heart-Focused Breathing: Breath from the heart center – into your heart on inhales and from your heart on exhales – for 10-20 seconds to shift your physiology.
  • Connect with a Positive or Renewing Emotion: Recall something in your life that provides you a sense of appreciation, care, gratitude, or love. This could be a person, a pet, maybe a memory or a special place.
  • Then continue breathing gently through the heart, while activating and experiencing this renewing energy throughout your body for a couple of minutes.

note on paper

From Paragon Pulse

The Power of Gratitude as a Daily Ritual

Team Spotlight:

VP&CHRO Communication and Employee Recognition/Events - "CommVents"

What We Do: Our CommVents team supports internal messaging to Cornell employees, as well as external messaging to prospective employees through recruiting. This includes things like emails, videos, written articles, and website content. Our team also is responsible for employee recognition programs and events, such as the Appreciation Portal, Cornell Heroes, and Employee Celebration.

Team Members:

  • Ashley Fazio, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives: Coordinates staff messaging with University communications and leadership; provides comms support to the VPCHRO, and directs employee communication strategy.
  • Jerry Deis, Digital Communications Specialist: creator of video content, audio/visual event support, social media, mass emails, and copyright connoisseur.
  • Grace DePaull, Communications Assistant: storyteller focused on employee profiles and program and event coverage, producer of the Inclusive Excellence Podcast.
  • Sue Brightly, Communications Specialist: website content maintenance, program marketing content, graphic design, and accessibility guru.
  • Vail Eubanks, Employee Recognition Programs and Events Coordinator: planning of university-wide employee events, appreciation programs, and supervision of student employees.

Recent Projects:
We're very close to implementing a new email system that integrates directly with Workday, and will streamline the current cumbersome process while providing a host of new features and improvements. We've been looking forward to this for several years!

 Health Promoting Campus

The Health Promoting Campus website launched in October on the one year anniversary of the Okanagan Charter signing.

Aaron King, house assistant dean, William Keaton House

Importance of Community & Belonging
How does a sense of community and belonging shape the experience of Cornell? Hear from Cornell colleagues in this video released last month.

Around The Departments

Department of Inclusion & Belonging

  • Inclusive Excellence Summit 2024: Save-the-date for this year's IE Summit. A virtual day will be held on Tuesday, March 26, and an in-person day on Wednesday, April 17. Raquel Willis, an award-winning activist, journalist, and media strategist, is the keynote speaker for the virtual summit.

Employee Recognition

  • Admin/Office Professional Day: Save-the-Date and plan to celebrate the university’s office professionals on Wednesday, April 24.

Employee Engagement

  • Workforce Affinity Groups: Have an idea for a group? Join or create a group and make new friends and connections! 

Organizational Development & Effectiveness

  • Human resources development program (HYPE): A new cohort program designed for HR assistants and generalist to help you elevate skills within Cornell's HR community and establish Human Resource professionals as vital partners. Submit your application.

Office of Institutional Equity & Title IX

Food For Thought:

Check out this article about How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Human Resources.

What do you think about AI and HR? Join the discussion on our HR Community Viva Engage channel!