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About
Built on a rare mix of credentials — and a refusal to pick just one lens.
Joy Nelson is the founder of WorkWise HR Solutions — a workplace wellbeing coach and consultant who spends as much time in HR compliance as she does in human behavior.
The Path Here
Before founding WorkWise, Joy spent five years as Chief People Officer at Urban Initiatives, a Chicago nonprofit embedded directly in Chicago Public Schools — running HR for an organization whose real product was people, in a system with very little room for error. That work sits at the intersection of compliance and human behavior, and it's where the idea for SIP first took shape: prevention and intervention aren't separate departments, they're the same conversation, just at different stages.
Why WorkWise
WorkWise exists because most HR work treats people problems and compliance problems as two different jobs. Joy's background — spanning HR credentials, coaching certifications, and graduate work in public health and youth development — was built specifically to hold both at once. The Stability-Intervention-Prevention (SIP) framework and the ADKAR-anchored programming behind WorkWise's tools both come out of that same premise: you can't fix retention, performance, or culture from just one side of the desk.
How Joy Works
Meeting people where they are.
That's not a tagline — it's a practice. Joy is a trained crisis volunteer, and that work shapes how she shows up everywhere else: no assumptions about where someone "should" be, no judgment for how they got there, just a real read of the moment and what would actually help next. It's the same instinct behind SIP — you can't intervene well until you've honestly located where things stand — and it's why WorkWise engagements start with listening, not a framework.
Credentials
HR credentials and coaching certifications, stacked on purpose.
Every engagement — whether it's HR On Call, a coaching relationship, or a project-based build — draws on both sides of this list at once.
01
PHR — Professional in Human Resources (HRCI)
02
ACC — Associate Certified Coach (ICF)
03
Organizational Development Coach — Symbiosis Coaching (190 hrs)
04
MSHRM — Master's, Human Resource Management (WGU)
05
MEd — Youth Development (UIC)
06
MPH — Master of Public Health (Purdue Global)
07
B.A. — Anthropology (Butler University)
08
Pursuing NBC-HWC & PROSCI Change Management
Beyond WorkWise
Still deep in the work of developing people — just in different rooms.
Joy also directs the B.E.S.T. Summer Leadership Academy, volunteers as a crisis responder, and stays connected to the South Suburbs and Northwest Indiana community through volunteer and community-facing work. It's the same throughline as the consulting practice: helping people build the clarity and stability to move forward, whether that's inside a workplace or outside one.
Whichever door fits you, it starts with one conversation.
Business or individual — pick the path that fits and go from there.
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