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Cultures of Integration and Balance: The Role of Supervisors in Creating Sustainable Work-life Environments

Cultures of Integration and Balance: The Role of Supervisors in Creating Sustainable Work-life Environments

Includes a Live Web Event on 04/23/2025 at 3:00 PM (EDT)

Supervisors play a critical role in shaping workplace culture, ensuring that employees can thrive professionally while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. As higher education environments become increasingly demanding and interconnected, supervisors must move beyond outdated expectations of overwork and instead develop intentional strategies that prioritize employee well-being, productivity, and retention. This session explores the key principles of work-life integration, emphasizing the importance of individual supervision, team support, and institutional advocacy in creating a sustainable, inclusive, and high-performing workplace.

Participants will gain insights into the evolving needs of today’s workforce, including the impact of health concerns, family obligations, restorative time, generational expectations, and role modeling by senior leaders. Through a combination of research-based strategies and interactive discussion, attendees will leave with a set of guiding principles to implement within their departments, ensuring that work-life integration is embedded in their supervisory practices, team management, and institutional culture.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Examine the key structures and principles of effective crisis response teams in higher education.
  2. Develop a framework for creating or improving a crisis response team, including defining roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures.
  3. Implement best practices for training and evaluating crisis response teams to ensure preparedness and effectiveness.
  4. Apply emergency management principles to real-world crisis scenarios, enhancing institutional readiness and response strategies.

Carrie Lovelace Petr, Ph.D.

CEO & Founder

Carrie Lovelace Petr Coaching & Consulting

A seasoned executive administrator, Carrie Lovelace Petr holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She trained as a certified professional and executive coach at the ICF-accredited College of Executive Coaching and is recognized as both an Associate Certified Coach from the International Coaching Federation a Board-Certified Coach by the Center for Credentialing Education. 

 Carrie has lived her professional career in service to higher education staff, students and faculty. Prior to founding her full-time coaching practice, Carrie served as senior student affairs officer at two institutions; throughout her career in higher education she has supervised all traditional areas in the field of student affairs.  Outside of the student affairs arena, Carrie has enjoyed work as a faculty member, academic adviser and academic administrator.  Of note for clients interested in their own professional growth, Carrie was the founding director of the Zenon CR Hansen Minor in Leadership Studies at Doane University and has practiced leadership development and higher education administration for more than 25 years. Partnering with long-time professionals and aspiring leaders to help them thrive and nurture their talents is her passion.  

 Beyond her professional life, Carrie is an avid reader and enjoys biking, craft cocktails, and storytelling.  She and her husband of 25 years share a college-age daughter and Felix, the most adorable King Charles Cavalier Spaniel in the universe. 

Marcella Runell, Ed.D.

Vice President for Student Life, Dean of Students

Mount Holyoke College

Dr. Marcella Runell, Vice President for Student Life Dean of Students, and Lecturer in Religion at Mount Holyoke College, is a social justice educator and author recognized nationally for her work in higher education, student wellbeing and community building. A 2024 Pillar of the Profession honoree by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), Marcella has published or been featured in media such as NPR, the Boston Globe and the Chronicle of Higher Education on topics such as work life integration, intergroup dialogue, friendship and identity. Her most recent book is UnCommon Bonds: Women Reflect on Race & Friendship. 

Now in her 11th year at Mount Holyoke, Marcella leads the Division of Student Life, overseeing Student Engagement (Residential Life, Student Involvement, Orientation, Community Standards, and the Be Well initiative), Community & Belonging, Health Services, Counseling, Public Safety, and Physical Education and Athletics. She has played a key role in developing programs like MoZone, Be Well, and the Living Learning Communities. 

Marcella also serves on advisory boards for Embrace Race and the Hip-Hop Education Center, is affiliated with UMass Amherst’s Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research and is a current member of NASPA’s Scott Academy board and the Holyoke Children’s Museum board. Before joining Mount Holyoke, she was the founding co-director for NYU’s Global Center for Spiritual Life, where she created the first Multifaith & Spiritual Leadership minor in the Silver School of Social Work. She has two very active school-age daughters, Aaliyah, 14, and Ava, 10

Components visible upon registration.