Christina Mundy, PhD

Chrissy is a staff scientist in the Division of Orthopaedic Research at CHOP. She is a wife and mom of 3 young children. She started as a post-doc research fellow in 2014 and briefly left CHOP to pursue a career outside of the bench at a small intellectual property law firm as a scientific technical advisor. Upon realizing that the demand of the job would not offer flexibility for childcare-related issues, she was grateful for the opportunity to return to CHOP. As a scientist, Chrissy meets with her PI to discuss big picture projects, but she has full autonomy when it comes to the design and execution of the experiments, data analysis and manuscript writing. In addition to her benchwork, she oversees the training of new technicians and manages and delegates lab-related duties. The position of staff scientist is not a long-term career for Chrissy, but at the moment, this position fits with her duties and responsibilities outside of CHOP. Chrissy feels strongly that a position that offers work-life balance is an important job quality to think about when deciding to take on a new position. Chrissy received her PhD from Temple School of Medicine. During her downtime she enjoys running, reading and crafting with her daughters.

Areas of Support

• Preparing for the next step with mentee's career

• Advising on the job search

• Managing time and competing priorities

• Practicing work/life balance or work/life integration

Mentoring Style

• Cheerleader: This type of mentor cheers on mentees and notices their progress. If a mentee makes a mistake, the cheerleader focuses on how the mistake will help the mentee grow.

• Educator: The educator will take the time to train mentees and help them to learn and develop. This type of mentor stays positive but still pushes mentees to excel.

About Me

I'm an approachable person. I will use all my resources to help the mentee with their career or personal life. My husband is a teacher and we have three school-aged kids, so I am the "go-to" parent during the school year. I know how difficult it is to manage a lab-based job and family. Besides kids, I value having a life outside of lab to go running, travel, cook or hang at home. I'm slowly learning that it is okay to do things for yourself and I hope that I can make others realize that as well.