Guest: Shelly Mullenix, Senior Athletic Director for Health & Wellness, LSU Athletics
Host: Lacy Dicharry, Senior Director & Executive Coach, LSU Leadership Development Institute
Published: June 16, 2026
Run time: 28:00
A player checks his phone at halftime and learns a family member has died. He is a starter, it is a big game, and the expectation is that he goes back out. Shelly Mullenix has been the person sitting with him in the visitor locker room, asking the coach for five minutes.
She spent decades on LSU sidelines as a certified athletic trainer, then went back to school for a social work degree because she was already doing the work. In this episode she talks about mediating between coaches and athletes, what a season dedicated to equipment manager Jeff Boss meant to a team, and what she said on a practice field days after Hurricane Katrina.
This episode includes discussion of grief, death, and Hurricane Katrina.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Shelly Mullenix: You're not trained in that, but you are born human. If we can stay in tune with our own feelings and emotions of how we would want to be treated, then it's really not that far of a jump to be able to treat someone else that same way.
Lacy Dicharry: [introduction] Welcome to Teams That Win, a podcast of the Louisiana State University Leadership Development Institute, where we explore what makes teams win and get to sit down and talk with leaders who help get those teams there. I'm Lacy Dicharry, your host and Senior Director and Executive Coach of the Leadership Development Institute. Geaux lead.
In today's episode, we invite Shelly Mullenix, who serves as a Senior Athletic Director for Health & Wellness at Louisiana State University. She has decades of experience on the sidelines, helping championship level teams win. Her background includes a holistic approach to student athlete health and well-being, and includes collaboration across LSU Athletics and the broader campus with community health and research partners.
Shelly is a powerhouse, and I think you're really going to enjoy hearing about her experience supporting athletes and teams that win, and how being present is one of the most powerful leadership skills you can have.
Lacy Dicharry: I had the chance to see her receive a very prestigious award with the Hall of Distinction at the College of Human Sciences & Education, and I was so inspired by the work that you do. So thank you and welcome.
Shelly Mullenix: Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.
Lacy: I am excited to dig into this topic, because I have a personal background in mental health and well-being. I have a master's in counseling in addition to [an MBA], leadership development, and I really, truly believe that if we are not well, we cannot lead well. I'm curious your thoughts about that.
Shelly: Yeah, I agree. There's definitely times, I think specifically back to most recent COVID times, all those periods that there's significant change going on within an organization, that if you're not somehow grounded in reality and in the moment, that you can lose yourself pretty quickly.
And so, yeah, I would agree with that 100%. You have to really be somewhere in some level of comfort with your mental health in order to be able to lead effectively.
Lacy: I think that's one of the biggest things that I was really inspired about your work, because you have this background in athletics and then you realize how much mental health impacts the performance of players and the whole team overall. And so, am I getting this right, that you actually went back then to get an [MSW] so that you could be more skilled in providing a holistic approach to the support that you were giving athletes?
Shelly: Yes. That's right. As an athletic trainer, certified athletic trainer, we have a skill set. And it's really essential to triage all things that are kind of health and wellness, whether it's just injury prevention or medication management, whatever it may be.
And I always found myself most comfortable in the space of mental health. And so I became the person that people kind of leaned on in that area, and did that under a number of coaches who also felt and appreciated the value of good mental health practices within their organizations and their teams.
And at some point, I just realized that I'm kind of skating on thin ice, anyway, when it came to what I was practicing as an athletic trainer. And I felt like I needed to be above board with what I was doing and make sure that I am skilled and trained in that area. And so I went back to school, did that, and now have that degree as well.
Lacy: Yeah, I love that. And the insignia on the [unclear] floor, when you walk in, the beautiful way that they've redone it, it talks about sound body, sound mind. And so even back then there was still this idea that it's not enough to have your physical well-being. You have to have your mental well-being to be able to perform, to be able to thrive.
Shelly: Yeah. It's a hard thing, I think, for people to really appreciate, because most training that people go through in order to become an [athlete] is not really centered on the mental health part at all. They do teach leadership and compassion and team camaraderie. But all those things are really component parts to someone's mental health. And so knowing how to kind of use those areas, I think, has been really helpful to motivate people.
Lacy Dicharry: Is there a specific story or experience that happened that helped you realize that?
Shelly Mullenix: There are a lot of stories.
Lacy: What's one example?
Shelly: Well, I would say what was always interesting was, and this may not sound great, but knowing how to manipulate two different parties, as being the mediator in between. So if I knew that a student athlete had some issue that was going on, they needed time off, whatever that may look like, and I have a coach who is not interested in giving anyone time off, because their focus is to be on the field or court or whatever it may be.
So, finding the right words to explain in the moment to a certain coach, and they're all different, what would allow that coach to give time to this kid to do something different other than the practice. Knowing that if we can give this individual the one hour or two hours that he or she needs to be able to do this task, whatever the task may be, that it would bring a lot of relief to that athlete.
And then if they felt relief that they got whatever it is that they needed to get, they could actually come back to the playing field and play a lot freer and a lot lighter, because they've solved a problem or they've gotten something out of the way.
And I think it's a hard atmosphere to do that, because there's so much in terms of time constraint, expectations, toughness, resiliency, all those things. But I think that people really don't understand what makes someone resilient or what makes someone tough. There's just lots of different ways to kind of go about that. And so being the middle woman in between that, I think, has been helpful for the coach to understand what the kid may be going through, and for the kid to understand what the coach needs in order to be successful as well.
Lacy: Yeah, I love that. I see that a lot in companies, so it mirrors really well with companies. And there may be specific leaders within a company who understand the need to support the mental well-being. They understand the need for a day off, a mental health day off, that brain health is health as well. Mental health is health.
But sometimes the company itself may or may not support that. And so it sounds like there's a little bit of a parallel. If the coach, the head coach, is really kind of the CEO of the team, if they really buy in and understand and believe that impact, they understand that sometimes rest, mental rest, can be some of the best ways to get your team to actually perform better.
Shelly: Yeah, there's a really fine line, I think, between appreciating that and the fear of then losing control of your people. If you give someone a break, does that just take the intensity down and you're not going to win the game, you're not going to compete as well as you can?
And it really just takes a lot of reframing. It takes a lot of practice for a coach to realize that when we did that, this was the outcome, and it worked in our favor. It may not always work in our favor, but this is the possibility that it could create something for us that would be helpful.
Lacy Dicharry: And I'm so curious, for some of the business leaders out there or running other community organizations, what were some of the benefits that you found to actually giving somebody a day off to go and deal with mental health stuff and come back, that were maybe surprising or unanticipated, that actually helped the team better in the end?
Shelly Mullenix: Focusing on the mental health angle, for me, going back to some of the student athletes I've seen. I've seen, unfortunately, a number of athletes who have maybe lost a relative, parent, grandparent, something like that, prior to a game or literally at halftime. They go back to their locker; they check their phone. There's a moment.
In that example, I remember sitting with a student athlete in the visitor locker room, experiencing the moment with him, because he had just lost a family member. The expectation is that this kid needs to get back on the field. He was a starting player, and it was a big game. And just trying to utilize all of my resources that I've either learned as an athletic trainer or have been trained in as a social worker, to maybe reframe the moment for the person.
Asking questions instead of telling him what I want him to do, I want you to go play. What would your mom or dad feel about that in this moment? What do you think they would want you to do? And for the coach: if you can just give me five minutes, coach. Just give me five minutes so I can have a conversation with someone to help them figure this out.
And the end result may be that they have to go home, that they can't be here. And I would 100% support that. And I would go back to the coach and say, we couldn't get it done.
But the moments when you can actually get someone to be able to use their own strengths and resolve to get through a moment, that makes the rest of that game in particular something that is more meaningful to them, more powerful to them. It creates a better cohesion amongst the team, because the team knows this kid came out here in a moment that most people would have gone away. And it really turns a really sad moment into something that can be super inspiring for groups.
Lacy Dicharry: Yes, I heard so many amazing things in what you just shared. Number one is just stopping for a minute, stopping and giving some time and space. I heard connecting with the person, understanding where they are. One of my favorite quotes is, the art of diplomacy is letting someone else have your way. It's really, how do you help them have their way? What do they really want out of that moment?
And for leaders, being able to stop, being able to connect, being able to attune to the moment and understand, I still need this thing to happen, and what is going to serve this person in front of me, the human in front of me, best? Knowing that we still want our team to perform.
What are a couple of the key questions that leaders could use to help support one of their team members that just had something like this happen?
Shelly Mullenix: Going back to what you just mentioned, I think asking what motivates them, what is their interest in this project. If you can understand what it is for them, the job of the leader would be to morph that project a little bit to be able to get them more on board. And sometimes you just have to kind of meet them where they are, and you'll get more productivity out of them.
I mean, athletics is very much just like a business from that standpoint. It's what the coach is going to say in a huddle that's going to get the highest amount of productivity. If you go in a huddle and the coach is just wearing them down mentally, when they're already worn down mentally from the performance that maybe they've already had in the first half of a game, it's not going to work. You've got to be pretty skilled on how you come at them.
Reading the room and just understanding what they might need. And if you can't read the room, it's also then just asking the individual, what is it that you need from me right now? And I think that leaders don't always do that, because what it does is it gives a little bit of myself and my strength away.
But my approach has always been to do that. If I give myself away, not completely, but if I give myself to them, there seems to be more buy in. There seems to be more of a relationship that can be built in trust, and that when I need them later, they will step up for me.
Lacy Dicharry: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's evidenced. You've had several professional athletes who were able to share in that award ceremony that that help from you, that stopping, that attuning to their mental health when things were happening, is what allowed them to keep playing. They accredited some of that professional career to everything that you just mentioned, being able to stop and provide that support and help them to keep moving through.
Shelly Mullenix: Yeah. Well, who else would do that in the moment? And to your point, no, you're not trained in that. But you are born human. So we are human. And if we can stay in tune with our own feelings and emotions of how we would want to be treated, then it's really not that far of a jump to be able to treat someone else that same way.
Lacy Dicharry: Yeah, absolutely. I know we have audience across Louisiana and they all are very excited about sports and LSU Athletics. Go Tigers. I am curious, what are some of your favorite moments behind the scenes that might translate into lessons learned for people who are out there wanting to be a part of teams that win every day?
Shelly Mullenix: That question leads me to think about my favorite picture that I have in my head. A lot of times my moments have been caught on camera, because there's camera around, big wins.
We had lost our equipment manager, Jeff Boss, after a season, to brain cancer. And he was the salt of the earth. I think anyone who's been involved with LSU Athletics as far back as 40 years now probably knows who Jeff Boss is. And we were all saddened by his loss to the department, to the team, to the individuals, because the student athletes really do find comfort in those individuals that are not part of the group that judges them. The coaches are the judges, and then the athletic trainers are the support services. The equipment managers are the people that support them and [are] there for them.
Jeff was that for a lot of people. And he was like that specifically for one of our offensive linemen who I had been working with a lot over the years with injury. We had, I think, a really healthy relationship, a nice bond. This particular athlete, I knew sincerely loved Jeff Boss. He was a teddy bear of a guy who just really did appreciate good people.
And we went through that following season basically focusing on doing this all for Jeff Boss. So our next season was kind of dedicated to that. So that meant a lot of things for different people. There's some senior athletes that have known him for four years, and there were some freshmen like, who's this Jeff Boss? But it was evident that he permeated the department, and everyone kind of knew enough about him to be able to be motivated by that.
We get to the very end. We get to the championship game, which was the first time in 50 some years that we'd gotten to the championship game. This was in 2003. In the moment, I'm not the kind of person that's going to run and cheer on the field when we win. I really kind of tried to soak it in.
And I saw this athlete that was standing there by himself, looking up at the sky, the ceiling. And I thought I would know what he was thinking, because I knew what I was thinking, and gave him a hug. And he mentioned Jeff's name, which was exactly who I was thinking about at the time, because he wasn't here.
The picture is me just kind of, we're on our knees and it looks like we're praying, but we're just basically enjoying the moment. And so those things really are the moments that I appreciate. If we would have lost, it could have very well been the same moment, because it was the culmination of a season that was just really hard and heavy for everybody. But knowing the possibility that Jeff was present with us, and that we dedicated something so big that belongs to the whole state to this individual, was just a really neat kind of feeling.
Lacy Dicharry: That's incredible. It was such a beautiful story. And I think a lot of people out there listening can really relate to, how do you find that thing that is so important that touches everybody's heart across the team, the company, you have a whole state and beyond that is rooting for some of our athletes and some of our teams. So really allowing that space and aligning for, I call it, something beyond ourselves.
Shelly Mullenix: Yeah. There was another really tremendous moment, a series of moments, that I think hit a lot of people. And when I hear stories about myself from other people, this story usually does come up.
It was during Hurricane Katrina, again, another challenging time for the state, clearly, and for us as a team. So we were in the middle of preseason football. And football will go on regardless of what else is happening. Because of our state, and because we are so heavily populated with athletes from Louisiana and particularly the southern part of the state, there were a lot of people that were impacted. People that didn't know where their parents were, people that didn't know where their uncles were. They were firemen, they were on duty. They were policemen that were on duty. I mean, there probably was at least 40, 50 of our student athletes that had direct involvement in what was going on down in New Orleans.
Subsequently, my husband and I had two of our friends that live down there in Arabi. And at that point we knew that the levee had broken, and we knew that it broke around where they lived. And I too felt the possibility that I could also have lost our friends, and then had to go to football the next day. For a two-a-day, which was a 16 hour day, for everybody.
And Coach Miles did a really good job that year, I think, of taking the pause. At the end of practice, when they call us up, he would allow people to kind of talk. We had been doing that for probably two or three days at that point.
And I had mentioned to him at some point, I think he was just checking in with people, so he must have said, how are you doing? I said, I'm doing okay, but we have some friends that we're concerned about. We hadn't heard from them yet, and we saw their house on [unclear]. However, we were able to kind of figure out where they lived, and the house was underwater. We knew that there might be some problems. And he said, keep me up on that.
Well, we get a phone call probably the next day or two later. They were calling from downtown Baton Rouge, that a tugboat had just brought over a bunch of people. And they had made it out. There was a story, obviously, of how they survived, got over the river to the West Bank, and then stayed in a jail overnight, and then a tugboat brought them over here.
My husband and I left that morning and went to pick them up. They were in orange jumpsuits, because that's the only clothes they were able to get from the jail. And they stayed with us. And that morning, we must have, for some reason, maybe had to go in that afternoon. We may have had that morning off.
And I told Tom, my friend, that I feel really bad leaving. I mean, it doesn't even make sense that I'm leaving, because we really thought that you might not be here. And now I'm going to go to football practice. And his statement was, there are people that are on top of their roofs right now with transistor radios that are waiting to hear about football practice and waiting to see how the game turns out. You have to go.
And I thought that can't possibly be true. But then what we started to see over the next couple of days was people on their roofs, because he had already seen this. People on their roofs with their emergency radio, which could be all they had in their hand, and they literally have nothing left, but they have LSU football. And that was coming from a person who was just a guy and loved LSU, but no more than the next person. But when you have nothing, to know that you always have LSU football in the midst of all this disaster, is what literally kept us going.
I got to work that day and I saw Coach Miles and I said, my friends are alive. And we both teared up. And he said, do you want to tell the story after practice? I said, if you want me to, I'll. I have been known to say a few things, so I'll talk. He said, well, when we go around we ask how everyone's doing. If you feel like you could say something, say something.
We go through practice and get to the end. And I mean, it was like a movie. On cue, one of the choppers flew overhead, because they were landing the choppers, bringing people over to our medical area at the track. And it was a very loud military chopper. It was so loud, basically, we had to stop talking. [unclear]
And he said, does anyone have anything else to say? And of course, like on cue, I said, yeah, I just wanted to let you guys know, because we talked about it in the athletic training room, that we found my friends. And, knowing where my friends survived, how they survived, I have faith that everyone will be able to make this. I think everyone's going to eventually find their people.
And I kind of paused. I said, and I won't use the language here that I used on the field. But I also knew from the athletes, again, in the three or four days leading up to that event, that they were very mad that they had to be at practice. They wanted to go save their individual; they literally knew that that's what they needed to do, and that's the expectation of them, and their family was that they were the provider. So they should go down there and do that. But it's not an option when you're in preseason football. It just wasn't going to happen. But I knew that that was really troubling people.
And I decided that I would say that I think that this is BS, that we're out here right now. And everyone, I was at the back of the pack, and everyone that was on their knees listening to what would have been the coach at the front, they all turned around. They looked at me, because it was literally what they wanted to say. It was just wrong. There was nothing right about what we were doing. And they turned around, and I remember hearing all the shoulder pads kind of move.
And I said, I know we don't want to be here. I know there's not a person here that wants to be here right now, and this is wrong, and it feels like we are letting our own people down. But this is what my friend Tom just told me. I just left him three hours ago, right before lunch, I got here. Many of you guys know the story. Went real briefly into the story, but this is what he told me, that they're waiting for us to play this game. And they're on someone's roof right now with the radio, and they've got it set to listen to our game. And now we have to go forward.
It was just what I was feeling. That part of it wasn't planned. And we went back into the training room after that. And we have hot tubs and treatment areas that they were in. And I was getting high fives, because I think they just needed a voice. And they were not in a position where they could give their voice, because it sent the wrong message. They assumed it would send the wrong message.
And it deserved tears. They deserved to be able to have those moments where they can cry at that moment, because they were horribly sad. And I think having, and also maybe having the female in this male dominated space, allowed for that in the moment, and it allowed for the weight to get lifted off of us. And we came back that evening for the walk-through practice, and it was more enthusiastic.
Lacy Dicharry: That is so powerful.
Shelly Mullenix: Yeah. It was an amazing time.
Lacy Dicharry: Thank you for sharing that. I heard many incredible moments in that story. Number one, I'm really glad your friends are okay. All those very, very challenging and traumatic times.
But I heard many things in there. So one is, how do you show up as a leader when everything's hitting the fan? We don't have control over what's happening. We don't know what's happening. It is devastating. How do you show up as a leader? You still show up. You have to set the example regardless of your title or position. And I heard that in what you were talking about, like, I'm still showing up.
And one of the things in my healing work that I like to talk about is, you cannot heal what you can't name. And giving a name to what people were feeling in that moment. Sometimes leadership is simply speaking up and sharing what needs to be said in a way that can be received. Sometimes that is the most powerful thing. I think that story just illustrated so beautifully.
And then just the last thing is that everybody being able to feel like they're in it together. Instilling vision is a leadership skill. Especially for leaders at the top. And you don't have to be at the top to be able to do that. But if you can clearly communicate a shared vision that people buy into, that is powerful.
And you not being at the top, you're not head coach, you are support. But you still were the most powerful influence that day, by sharing that vision that your friend had shared, and allowing people to really come in around that. That was beautiful. Really beautiful.
Shelly Mullenix: Yeah. Well, it shows a lot too. One of the ways that I kind of lead now, and I think to that, is collaboration. And I think in that respect, Coach Miles at the time was, it wasn't so important that he stood at the front of the room to lead, because that's maybe not what they needed to hear at the moment. But by allowing your team to contribute to that also, and collaborate in the messaging, it's going to hit everyone a little different.
Like, we have people that were from outside of our state that this was sad, Katrina was sad, but they couldn't even relate to it, because they've never even been in New Orleans to understand the streets and how it could have possibly flooded like that. So yeah, I think the collaborative approach to leadership is something that I have been a part of in a lot of different situations, and that definitely feels comfortable to me.
Lacy Dicharry: Yeah, I hear that collaboration. And then, as you reflect on your journey from where you started to where you are now, what would you say has taught you the most about being a leader?
Shelly Mullenix: I can say that the most important thing in me rising up, when I have had the opportunity to, has probably been a result of the relationships that I have formed along the way. I don't really see myself as being a skilled communicator, didn't go to school for leadership, but I do know that the relationships that I built have continually been motivators for me and for others.
They've allowed me to remain authentic and transparent, which I think a lot of people appreciate. I'm a horrible poker player. I cannot be a good poker player. I kind of put it all out there for people.
Lacy Dicharry: I've worked all over the US and in several countries, and I would say it's a very special and unique thing about Louisiana, is we really care about each other. We have each other's backs. And that is something that if you, as a leader, can care, can show that you care, from performance to what's happening in their personal life to what's really going on inside of them, and being able to give them space to give that voice, or give that voice for them. I think that is one of the very, I would say, culturally unique aspects that really drive organizations across Louisiana, at least in my experience.
Shelly Mullenix: I agree. Really beautiful. Agree. Yeah, thanks.
Lacy Dicharry: Well, thank you so much for coming today. I learned a lot. I think there's a lot that I can even take away. Just pausing and giving that moment for people to say what needs to be said. That is so simple, but it's something that we bypass when we get so focused on busyness and so focused on, what do we have to achieve and what's next in the next task.
Just slowing and giving space and listening. I think that's one of the most powerful things that leaders can do to make an impact on their team. And just really incredible stories that you shared with us, and hopefully everybody else enjoyed that too. Thank you so much for coming.
Shelly Mullenix: Yeah, thank you for this. Appreciate it.
Lacy Dicharry: [close] Thank you all for listening to another episode of Teams That Win. If you want to partner with LSU, send us an email at ldi@lsu.edu. Now, geaux lead.