BRA's new HR Chief: A story of hard work, honesty, and Sci-Fi escapes

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After 17 years with the organization, the Brazos River Authority named Crystal Wilde the new Chief Human Resources Officer.

Wilde, of Westphalia, said she aims to foster a collaborative and supportive environment based on servant leadership principles.

"I want to help employees be the best they can be at whatever it is," she said. "I want to help them advance their careers and equip them with the tools for success."

Wilde joined the Brazos River Authority in 2008 as a human resources assistant and was promoted to HR coordinator in 2014. She has been responsible for recruiting and hiring, compensation and job analysis, employee development, and employee relations programs for more than a decade.

Wilde said from the time she was little, her dad instilled in her a profound belief: honesty is the greatest gift you can have. It's been the guiding principle of her life, she said.

"Of course, it can be a double-edged sword — I tend to expect the same level of honesty from others. But despite everything, I still want to believe most people are inherently good and want to tell the truth."

Wilde was working at an escrow office while attending McLennan Community College. In her accounting class, she noticed a classmate who she had previously worked with at a mortgage company. Wilde re-introduced herself to Monica Wheelis and then didn't give it a second thought.

Six months after the class, Monica Wheelis contacted the professor to get her information.

Monica Wheelis was the Human Resources Manager for the BRA until her retirement in January 2025. She'd worked for the organization since 2004. Wheelis said her first impression of Wilde was that she was smart, outgoing, confident, friendly, and ready to take on any challenge without hesitation.

"She seemed to be the perfect person to fill the vacant position in the Human Resources Department, so I actively recruited her," Wheelis said recently. "After working with her for 17 years, I am happy to report that she has proven to be all that and more. She was always the first to step up to help her coworkers, and at one time or another, she was either the primary or backup for every position in the HR department."

"Crystal has been BRA's biggest cheerleader and unwavering in her support for the employees at this organization," Wheelis said. "I have no doubt that she will be a phenomenal chief of Human Resources and continue to serve the employees at this organization with empathy, showing true leadership."

Most people end up in human resources by accident, Wilde said. For a long time, it wasn't even a degree plan.

In the early 1900s, some companies started having "employment clerks" to help find workers. But World War I really changed things, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Wilde earned her SHRM-Senior Certified Professional certification in 2019 and currently serves as president of the local Heart of Texas – Society for Human Resource Management Chapter.

Because so many workers went off to war, companies had trouble finding enough people, which led to a jump in businesses having departments just for managing workers and "personnel administration" became a standard position. In 1954, Peter Drucker's The Practice of Management was published and the term "human resources" was born, adding new credibility to the profession, according to SHRM.

Human resources became its own discipline taught in universities in the middle of the 20th century, according to Human Resources MBA.

Wilde joined the BRA in 2008 as an HR assistant and received her associate's degree from McLennan Community College in 2010. While she worked, she also continued working toward her degree, graduating from Tarleton State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management in 2013.

In 2014, she was promoted to the HR coordinator position.

During 2018, several experiences led her to commit to a career in human resources.

"I thought if I want to really do this, if I want to make this my career forever, I decided I needed to further my education," she said.

She proceeded to earn a Master of Science in Human Resources Management in 2021.

Wilde said she applied to her new position as Chief Human Resources Officer because she wanted to continue to serve BRA employees and make sure the organization has the best people in the right positions.

"I love it here," she said. "It's the people I get to work with every day, all across the Brazos River Basin. We have some of the best professional people across all disciplines. It's really incredible to get to work with this group of people. On top of that, our mission is to make sure people have the water they need; it's an incredible thing to be a part of that."

Wilde said she couldn't have gotten to where she was without Wheelis and others that she worked with along the way.

"I've been fortunate she'd allowed me to learn all the different aspects of HR," said Wilde, who will now oversee the eight other employees within the department.

Wilde has some solid advice for anyone thinking about getting into HR: don't just focus on one thing. She says it's more valuable to learn about all the different aspects of HR, like benefits or compensation, that way, you have a fuller picture of the department. This holistic perspective helps HR professionals to better understand the overall impact of their work and contribute more effectively to the organization, she said.

Currently, when she's not working, she's helping her husband, Eric, with the family cattle operation. Though, she joked, she mainly does the paperwork. Wilde said her children, Mallory, 9, and Myles, 7, are active in church and sports, so most of her free time is spent driving them around to where they need to go.

When the demands of the day subside and a precious hour appears, she enjoys disappearing into the immersive worlds of science fiction, escaping within the pages of a well-loved novel.