Christel Colón: Human Resources Advocate Making a Difference at the Lab and on Long Island
June 3, 2015
Christel Colón, a senior human resources manager in the Lab’s Human Resources Directorate, had a great reason to celebrate recently when she was inducted as president of the Long Island Chapter of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM-LI). Colón is one of Brookhaven’s human resources professionals overseeing the Lab’s workforce planning, performance management, employee relations, and more.
A national organization, SHRM works to create opportunities for networking among Human Resources (HR) professionals, promote professional development, and mentor those who are just entering the field.
“I was honored to be inducted as president of the Long Island Chapter of SHRM,” said Colón. “The HR field is constantly evolving and SHRM provides an important pathway for HR professionals to come to the table with ideas and suggested resolutions for the challenges currently encountered by those in our field. As a national laboratory some of our HR matters are unique, but I have found that brainstorming with HR professionals from other organizations can be extremely valuable.”
Colón joined SHRM-LI in 1990 and has chaired or served on many of its subcommittees. She even created a new committee—the SHRM-LI Council on Diversity and Inclusion.
She is proud that the Long Island Chapter has won several awards and is a two-time winner of the Pinnacle Award for HR Excellence. The Chapter received the awards specifically for its workforce readiness initiative and developing a virtual human resources program that includes collaborating with teachers to introduce high school students to careers in human resources.
“In addition to the awards, SHRM-LI members’ hard work also paid off this past May when our local chapter successfully hosted 900 participants for our 24th annual conference,” added Colón.
At Brookhaven, Colón is deployed with the Environment, Biology, Nuclear Science and Nonproliferation Directorate and the Energy Sciences Directorate where she is tasked with overseeing the proactive delivery of various HR programs, developing, managing, and implementing HR strategies and solutions in workforce planning, performance management, and employee relations. In June, Colón will expand her duties to include nonscientific operations and support directorates.
2015-5731 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
