Winona State hired an alum that will join the health and wellness team.

Amy Nelson graduated in spring 2020.

Nelson was hired by the university in June as a graphic designer for health and wellness services.

Nelson said she worked with the health and wellness team while she was interning as a student.

“I started interning in 2017. More things just kind of kept getting added onto my plate. First it was running the social media accounts and just kind of doing email communication, then I kind of started adding in more things. Once this position started, I really started doing a lot more writing for the wellness blogs,” Nelson said.

While a student at Winona State, Nelson was an i-design major. In addition to interning with health and wellness services, she was lead photographer for the communications department.

Nelson has many responsibilities in her position.

“I manage the health and wellness social media accounts, I help lead the health promotion team and some of the interns and I’ve been working on the wellness blog,” Nelson said.

Nelson creates infographics regarding COVID-19 to communicate with students and faculty, as well as the community.

“It’s nice to see that my work is getting out there,” Nelson said. “The Minnesota Department of Health has put some of my graphics on their website, and they’ve included some of those in their trainings and stuff. So that makes me feel really special that they’ve noticed me.”

Nelson works alongside Katie Jensen, health and wellness promotion coordinator, and Connie Kamara, director of health and wellness services.

“I’m so thankful for the relationship that I have with Katie and Connie, that they really were like ‘we need to have Amy on’. I’m so grateful for them, they’ve been such amazing role models,” Nelson said.

Jensen said that Nelson has put a lot of effort and work into communicating about COVID to the Winona State community.

“She’s been working with us very closely since day 1 of the COVID-19 pandemic to help coordinate the creation of illustrated recommendation guides for many departments around

campus,” Jensen said. “Anything relating to COVID-19 mitigation efforts on campus – we’ve called on Amy to help get strong health and wellness messaging out there!”

Nelson is currently leading the Great Warrior Hibernation on the Winona State health social media accounts.

“[The Great Warrior Hibernation] is kind of an incentives challenge for students to kind of lay low during this modified quarantine,” Nelson said.

Every day, there are different activities that students can participate in and win prizes from completing.

Her position offers her a lot of room to be creative.

“I’m so thankful how much creativity this position has given me,” Nelson said.