Wellbeing at Work: Building a Culture of Care in Associations

In this episode of Associations NOW Presents, guest host Aaron Wolowiec, FASAE, CAE, CMP Fellow, founder and president of Event Garde and host of the Voices & Views podcast, chats with Tara Davis, senior director, internal communications and staff wellbeing at the American Psychological Association, about the growing importance of wellness in high-stress industries like associations and hospitality. Tara shares how APA is fostering a culture of care through initiatives like the "Meet with Purpose" campaign, and discusses key strategies for preventing burnout, supporting mental health, and building intentional connections among staff. This insightful conversation explores emerging wellness trends and how prioritizing employee wellbeing can drive both personal and organizational success.

Check out the video podcast here:

https://youtu.be/IvPlhKGgtiw

This episode is sponsored by Visit Orlando.

Associations NOW Presents is produced by Association Briefings.

 

Transcript

Aaron Wolowiec: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to this month's episode of Associations Now Presents. We'd like to extend a special thank you to this episode sponsor. Visit Orlando. I am Erin Wallic, founder and president of Event Card, where we're passionate about transforming to help organizations meet, learn, plan, and grow. I'm also honored to be a newly inducted member of the 2025 Class of A SAE Fellows, an incredible community of change makers and thought leaders in the association space at Event Guard.

We're known for helping associations elevate their meetings and learning experiences, reimagine facilitation practices, and navigate meaningful strategic planning. But today, I'm here not just as a. Facilitator or strategist, but as the founder of Healthy By Association, a wellness focused community, I launched back in 2017 to support those of us working in the often high stress world of associations and hospitality.

That's why this conversation is especially close to my heart. Today's [00:01:00] episode takes a deep dive into what wellness really looks like in association life beyond the buzzwords. We're talking about burnout, prevention, mental health, flexible work, and what it means to build a culture of care that supports both staff and members.

Joining me is someone who lives and breathes this work. Tara Davis, senior Director of Internal Communications and Staff Wellbeing at the American Psychological Association. Tara brings more than 15 years of experience in using psychological science and strategic communication to build healthier, more human centered workplaces.

Her work sits at the intersection of empathy. Evidence and action, and I can't wait for you to hear her insights, whether you're a CEO, trying to prevent staff burnout, an events professional considering wellness lounges and quiet rooms, or just an overwhelmed association pro Wondering if it's okay to take a real lunch break.

This episode is for you. Alright, let's get into it. Welcome again, Tara. We're gonna certainly start the conversation today from a big picture [00:02:00] perspective, and I would love to just define a key term before we get into it. When you think about wellness, I'm curious, what does wellness mean to you within the context of association life today?

Tara Davis: First of all, thank you so much for inviting me to be here. I am so excited about this opportunity and to talk about something I'm very passionate about. So thank you. So I like to focus on the term wellbeing rather than wellness. It seems a little bit of a wordsmithing, but. Wellness to me implies either you're well or you're not.

And it is like one end of the spectrum or the other. And in reality, wellbeing is a spectrum, right? And it's a state of being healthy and happy. And there are lots of different types of wellbeing. There's financial, there's social, there's intellectual, and I think that. It's important to focus on this holistic wellbeing.

It used to be [00:03:00] that people thought about it really as just your physical health, and then I think we evolved a little bit to consider your mental health, but it's so much more. It's this connection of your mind and your body and how you really are doing. When someone asks you. 

Aaron Wolowiec: I love that there are so many different dimensions of wellbeing and they don't always get talked about in all of the places at home or in the workplace, in school, in our church, or volunteer opportunities either.

I'm curious. How you think expectations around workplace wellbeing have changed for association professionals over the last few years? Has it been just as a result of the pandemic or have other factors really been at play? 

Tara Davis: That's such a good question and so per