In addition to being Dr. Nell, O’Donnell Weber is an essential team member on the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Child Support Services’ Good Life Vision project, including the Good Life Camp.

As the project’s curriculum developer, Dr. Weber is working with the LCO Child Support staff and the project’s dedicated set of local partners to create a curriculum on responsible parenting and economic mobility that speaks to the cultural values and historical context of the LCO and other tribal communities. The curriculum will be delivered in the LCO Ojibwe School, the LCO Boys and Girls Club, the Good Life Camp, and elsewhere to tribal youth between the ages of 13 and 23.

By now you’ve hopefully heard of Fat Bear Week. It’s probably about as famous as Shark Week. The GPS team was brainstorming ideas for podcast and interesting people last year and David mentioned his brother Carl Ramm, does bear management in passing. The concept of doing bear management was so intriguing, so of course the team had lots of questions for David and brought Carl on as a guest to the Podcast. The idea of the first podcast was that Carl would come on and talk about Bear Management and we’d be able to tie bear management to leadership. Surely managing bears has similar leadership lessons or concepts and managing humans?

There are times in life that one might find themselves in the right place at the right time. Joe Mamlin on our team was in a band called “Underwater People” and his band mate was Jim. Jim is a teacher and in the summer works for Camp Highlands for Boys, and has done so for a number of years. When we started planning the Good Life Vision Camp Joe mentioned Jim and Camp Highlands. We then set up a call with Andy Bachmann, the Camp Director, to talk about Lac Courte Oreilles’ cultural camp.

During this time of high stress, organizations are finding it more important than ever to support employees and teammates and encouraging self-care. Organizations are realizing that employees that are take care of themselves and feel supported have reduced stress, are more efficient and productive. Employees that take care of themselves, take less sick time and stay at an organization longer. Self-care helps ensure ongoing good health (both mental and physical), and help you better manage your stress and build resilience.

I am so fortunate to be part of the amazing Leif Family and have so many extended Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Our Uncle Greg is a Catholic Priest in Minnesota. Our daughters called him Uncle God growing up which thankfully, he found to be comical! I have gotten to go on many fun hiking adventures with Uncle Greg over the years and we have the most amazing in-depth conversations about the world, politics, life, and recently we have talked a lot about compassion and empathy.

We are pleased to announce the third installment in our “Community Table Talk” series. In this episode we talk about hobbies people have outside of work. This topic was of particular interest to me as I know how important my time away from work is, and how it makes me better at my job and in so many other ways. In fact, everyone at Grays Peak has some kind of interesting hobby that they are passionate about. In the GPS Family, we have people who enjoy skiing, hiking, traveling, music, art, wine, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking and much more. We do our best to encourage these things, and provide space for people to pursue what they love, which in turn makes us a happier and more cohesive team.