A wide array of MSU’s student services are now unified under the leadership of one woman: Angie Reay. Reay, after more than a decade at MSU, has accepted the position of executive director of student wellness. With her new role, Reay heads up the Wellness Center, recreation sports, the Counseling Center, Vinson Health Center and disability support services. Her appointment comes among a variety of other leadership changes at the university, and will be among the determining factors in MSU’s future direction.

In choosing a vision for her new role, Reay said she wants to ensure all aspects of student wellness are both accessible and working together.

“I have the opportunity to create a holistic wellness approach for students. And so to me, that includes not only their physical wellness which I’ve been, that’s what I’ve really doing these last few years as the director of rec sports and wellness, but also mental health, working with medical health, anything from financial to working with resiliency, coping. Any kind of wellness that can help our students be successful inside and outside the classroom is what my new position, I feel like, means to me,” Reay said.

Reay said that academic tutoring and other resources aid students inside the classroom, so one of the concerns of her position is how to maximize resources for student wellness beyond the classroom.

“What can we do in our departments and our division within student affairs to make sure that you are okay outside of the classroom? You know, that you have access to our facility to take care of your physical health, that you have access to counseling services,” Reay said.

As the title “executive director of student wellness” implies, Reay’s goals are student-focused. Reay said that’s something she wants to emphasize by including student’s wishes in the overall direction of campus wellness.

“What do you want to see as students? Are we missing the mark somewhere too? We want to make sure that we’re providing everything that you need to be successful at the university,” Reay said, adding that having students lead some activities is one way she hopes to accomplish that.

“I would like to see more students teaching classes over here. That’s something I’m always, like, reaching for. Because I think we need more student involvement here at the Wellness Center. Not just working at the front desk or something like that, I want to see students more involved with Exercise [Physiology] or with Dr. Wyatt, to have, like, students be personal trainers. And so I would like to see more of that kind of evolve, and just students having more of an input. I feel like they’ll have, like, more ownership if they’re more involved over here, and I think that goes for any of the departments that I oversee,” Reay said.

Reay said one goal she wants to tackle is making sure students are aware of what the campus offers them.

“Just making sure that students know about the resources that we have to offer. You’re already paying for them through your tuition and fees. And so you might as well use them,” Reay said.

Reay isn’t new to dealing with the problems MSU students face. She attended MSU as a student, and has served in a variety of roles at the university since. She said she’s willing to step up to to whatever the university needs. 

“Having done my undergraduate and master’s here, and knowing what the university has done for me me and my family, whatever I need to be or whatever role they need me to be here at the university, I’m more than happy to do anything like that,” Reay said.