LaSundria Williams, Sunny to her friends and co-workers, always held a special place in her heart for the years she spent working at BlueCross as a CoverTN customer service representative, helping ensure the health needs of our youngest and most vulnerable members are met.
Now living with her family in Nevada, she’s been able to rejoin the team and serve members once again thanks to remote work.
An early impact
Originally from Chicago, Sunny left the Windy City in 2006 to raise her two sons in a smaller, more closely knit community. Her mother and sister already lived in Chattanooga, so she joined them and began working at BlueCross soon after.
Sunny relished her work in CoverTN answering calls from small business owners as well as member families, helping parents navigate their children’s benefits. She also bonded quickly with her co-workers. Just a month into her employment, a sudden death in her family called her back to Chicago.
“BlueCross really came through for me,” Sunny says. “I had just started working there – I was a brand-new employee, but my managers helped me make travel arrangements for the funeral and employees from all over the state donated their PTO so I could take time off. I knew then that this was a special place and that I was going to stay here.”
Sunny stayed with BlueCross for nine years, serving families in Tennessee and supporting her team until another major life change in 2016 brought her out west.
“I loved my job, but as my kids got older, living in a city started to press on me,” Sunny explains. “My uncle had bought some land out in Nevada, and I felt this pull to live in a new environment closer to nature.”
Putting down roots in the desert
After moving to Winnemucca, Nevada, Sunny and her sons thrived.
“My oldest really resisted the move, which was right after he graduated high school,” Sunny remembers. “But he ended up meeting his wife here, so he definitely came around!”
While working at the local hospital as an ER receptionist, Sunny got involved in her community and forged relationships with first responders, town officials and neighbors. She also encouraged her family members to join her and now has many of them as neighbors.
Sunny never forgot about her time at BlueCross, however, and kept in touch with her former co-workers. After taking a break from hospital work in 2023, she reached out to a contact about positions. It wasn’t long before she was offered a remote job in BlueCare as a customer service representative.
Coming home
“I really feel like it was an answered prayer to come back to this family,” Sunny says. “And I’m not going to waste this opportunity to come back.”
Though the work is slightly different, Sunny says the dynamic with her team is just as close as she remembered.
“My training class that I came in with has an ongoing chat,” Sunny says. “We keep track of each other’s birthdays, who needs help with something, our weekend plans and just staying in touch.”
Having that sense of community is important to Sunny, especially when working remotely.
“Sunny’s remote status never feels like a barrier,” says Stephanie Wimpee, BlueCare Operations Supervisor and Sunny’s manager. “She fosters strong relationships and a sense of teamwork. My favorite thing about her is the sense of humor she brings. Sunny lives up to her name — she’s full of sunshine.”
Making remote work for you
Sunny points out that human connection is important to her and can be challenging when not able to interact face to face. But, as she points out, “Remote work is really what you make it. You can just log on and log off without talking to folks and feel separated, or you can get involved and share pictures of your dogs and kids and open up to others.”
That intentional outlook has already gotten Sunny a promotion in her department, and benefits her work with members, who appreciate the human touch of knowing there’s someone on the other end of a phone call who cares.
“We have to take the time to listen and be human for our members,” Sunny says. “Because they need help from us to navigate something difficult – you have to be very present.”
Being present from a distance also has its perks for Sunny’s personal life. Working in a Western time zone, her day begins and ends earlier than most of her co-workers, letting her enjoy the sunshine, run errands and even help neighbors watch their kids in the afternoons and run a vacation Bible school in the summers.
Sunny has travelled a long way to find a home for her family, but thanks to remote work, she’s never too far from her BlueCross home.
“I’m happy to be back with my BlueCross family,” Sunny says. “I’m just blessed to be where I am.”
A graduate of The University of South, Sewanee, Jacob joined the Corporate Communications team in 2018. With a background in marketing, public relations and literary publishing, he brings storytelling expertise and a collaborative spirit to every project.