Our warm congratulations to SPPGA staff member Andrea Reynolds on receiving the 2021 UBC President’s Staff Award for Wellbeing! The President’s Staff Awards honour exceptional contribution in specific areas that are important to UBC, as outlined in seven categories, including Wellbeing.
Andrea has been with UBC for eight years and is Manager of Student Academic Services at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) at the University of British Columbia. Andrea has a long history of providing outstanding and collaborative leadership in the area of wellbeing at SPPGA.
She has participated in, advocated for and/or organized our staff and faculty to participate in activities like UBC Thrive week, UBC Sports Day, the national Not Myself Today campaign, and Vancouver’s Bike to Work Week annually for many years, starting with UBC Sports Day in 2013. Andrea has encouraged and role modelled wellbeing throughout the year, with the goal of having staff, faculty, and students at SPPGA regularly reflect on the importance of mental, emotional and physical wellbeing and experience positive changes in their own health.
Thanks to her efforts, she has created a safe space for all of us to speak about mental health, to connect socially (especially important during the COVID era), and to provide support to one another.
Here are some examples of appreciation and the impact her work has had as expressed by colleagues within SPPGA:
“Andrea is an inspiring leader when it comes to wellness. She is so accessible and open to conversations – the perfect person to engage all of us including introverts and extroverts in our community. With Andrea’s leadership, SPPGA has benefited from an increased sense of community – one that is profoundly supportive and empathetic.”
– Moura Quayle, Professor and founding Director, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Former Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues; Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Academic Affairs
“Andrea always takes the initiative to get us in order and moving. She’s been our lead on our SMART (SPPGA Mental-Health Awareness Resources Team) at the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs since Nov. 2020. As lead, she ensures that the SMART team shares resources at staff meetings and provides mental health support in general to the SPPGA community. She also promotes mental-health month, which takes place annually in November as part of Thrive. Without a doubt, she is our mental health awareness champion in the school.”
– Timothy Shew, Administrative Coordinator, School of Public Policy & Global Affairs
“Andrea has done so much in promoting wellbeing at our school. She has been a champion of mental health activities; not only does she contribute much to sports and mental health activities, but she also contributes a lot to social events – definitely an essential part of our overall wellbeing. She supports all forms of activities, formal or informal, i.e. a walk in the forest, eating lunch together in the office or outside, participating in Bike to Work Week, and getting together socially over lunches on Zoom during our remote work.”
– Bulgan Batdorj, former Receptionist, Administrative Assistant, School of Public Policy & Global Affairs; PhD Student, The Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)
