Christie Hunnicutt, senior director of health and counseling services at The Juilliard School, is leading efforts to support student wellbeing through a comprehensive and systemic approach. Since joining Juilliard in October 2024, Hunnicutt has applied her experience from social work and healthcare to help students thrive both artistically and personally.
Hunnicutt’s background includes over 15 years in clinical and administrative roles focused on health and wellness across child welfare, healthcare, higher education, and community systems. Her academic training at Smith College emphasized the influence of systems and environments on health. At Juilliard, she oversees a team dedicated to integrating mental health and wellness into daily student life.
She described the integrated care model used by Juilliard Student Health: “Juilliard Student Health provides an integrated health care program that factors in the important components of location and accessibility of services, mobility and outreach, and tireless collaborative efforts with Juilliard administration. Our administrators, practitioners, and staff are outstanding; they bring unique, individualized training, compassionate investment in students, and expertise in varying areas of health care and the performing arts. Balance is not just about the outcome. It includes the path along the way. Each individual on our team contributes to balance [in a student’s personal and artistic life], noting preventative and intervening factors that will address the root of the issues at hand and fortify students with new knowledge for their experiences ahead.”
Hunnicutt noted that programs such as workshops, community presentations, open forums, as well as collaborations with other divisions aim to make support accessible throughout campus life: “Health programming … [is] developed with the intention of bringing Student Health directly out of the offices and clinic and into the greater Juilliard community.”
She highlighted some unique challenges faced by conservatory students who must balance academic demands with performance pressure while managing personal stressors.
The school offers onsite services including primary medical care, counseling, psychiatry, sports medicine/physiatry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic care, and nutrition support. These services are designed for ongoing access during a student’s time at Juilliard.
In discussing how her department aligns with Juilliard’s focus on holistic development beyond artistic achievement alone she said: “Juilliard students bring vitality, ambition and motivation to their respective areas of study and performance… This requires an integrated care perspective… represented through offering a range of services that span physical to psychological… That being said we also try to just listen. Listen to the students listen to the tempo… listen to larger public health concerns that might factor into a student’s experience here.”
One distinctive initiative is Counseling Services’ clinical group composed of 15 counselors plus a psychiatrist—an unusually large team for a student health system—which allows them to address diverse needs from routine wellness checks to more urgent interventions alongside collaboration with Juilliard’s Assessment & Care Team (ACT).
Nutrition initiatives include group sessions on performance nutrition guest speakers first-year programming tailored for specific disciplines as well as one-on-one consultations.
Looking forward Hunnicutt aims for continued collaboration across departments developing new programs where needed expanding informal peer-supported spaces exploring culturally driven approaches: “I am incredibly excited about continued collaborations throughout the school… I want to tap into creative ways we can reach a wider… audience… I am also very curious about research geared towards more informal peer-supported spaces that offer adjunctive support…”
