Francis Churchill has worked in the same office off Spear Street since 1993 and every spring, he has watched an Osprey build her nest in the nearby trees. He raised his two daughters in his childhood home in Richmond, buying it from his mother a couple of years after he started working for ̽̽. He still gets together regularly with the group of parents who raised their now-adult kids alongside his own. Francis’s roots run deep in Vermont and at ̽̽, yet every day is a new adventure. 

“There’s always something interesting going on and it’s always different,” he says. To make his point, Francis shares that during a quiet summer week between holidays, he went from a biohazard safety meeting where he learned about a researcher who is pioneering a new way of measuring the effects of strokes one day, to donning a hazmat suit and cleaning up a small but odorous chemical spill the next. The enjoyment from both encounters is easy to read in his expression while his voice remains soft and steady with kindness. Francis is, as all who nominated him for the Our Common Ground Award suggested, a person who finds ways to connect with everyone he works with—a number tallying well into the thousands—and uses this connection to steer people toward safer behaviors. 

The 1980s and 90s saw a boon in EPA regulations around the management and disposal of hazardous waste. Francis, who received a degree in Biology from ̽̽ in 1990, started working in this new field right out of college and in 1993, took his first position with the university as a hazardous waste specialist. From there, Francis moved into different positions focusing on environmental and laboratory safety. He built relationships with faculty, staff, and students across the university and utilized those connections to build better campus-wide protocols around safety. “When something isn't working or when something could have been done better, Francis used the consensus approach to get the right people together to ‘fix’ it,” Tessa Lucey, Director of Compliance Services and Chief Privacy Officer, said.  

His work protecting people and planet took a much more prominent role in 2020 with the university response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Francis and Tessa co-led the ̽̽ Health, Safety, and Resumption of Operations Committee. Francis became the conduit for turning goals into reality, thanks to his problem solving and coalition building.  

The nationally commended practices adopted by the university during COVID are a genuine reflection of Francis’s approach to safety. In addition to utilizing the relationships around campus he had already forged, Francis grew his network, met people where they were, and in doing so, developed enough trust and buy-in to find solutions. In the backdrop of COVID, he also navigated significant organizational changes within the university and was promoted to his current role as director. In this new position, his leadership resulted in innovations including a safety officer program which Francis hopes will remain a key part of the university’s operational infrastructure. Even bigger takeaways, Francis notes, are the behavioral and cultural shifts that have occurred around safety: “People really got the idea that they do own their safety, and that they have the agency and the ability to make changes within that." 

With over 30 years in the field, Francis understands that people are much more likely to change their behaviors when they have a positive model to follow. It is more effective to offer people a path forward than emphasizing what they shouldn’t do. “We don’t command or control anybody on campus,” he says. “You need people to do the right thing when you’re not there.” The guiding principle that safety starts with a conversation instead of a command has served Francis well. Those who work closely with him all pointed to it as one of the many ways he embodies ̽̽’s Our Common Ground. 

“Francis exhibits an unwavering sense of justice towards others,” Chief Safety and Compliance Officer Michael Schirling said. “He treats everyone with fairness and respect, creating an inclusive and supportive environment. His ability to listen attentively and empathize with others has earned him the admiration and loyalty of his colleagues and team members.” 

Recognition doesn’t seem like much of a priority to Francis. The mention of praise from his colleagues has him generating a to-do list of initiatives he hopes to launch or resurrect. Over his three decades of service to ̽̽, Francis has accomplished a lot for the university - but the way he treats the people he does it for is truly outstanding. 

"The best way to convey how deserving he is of this award,” Tessa Lucey said, “is to look at ̽̽’s successes during the pandemic, to look at the results of federal and state inspections and reviews, and, equally important, to see the smiles on other people's faces when he walks into a room.”