Chamber Welcomes Schantell Hummel

Here at the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, we’re all about connecting and getting to know the people who make up our community.

We’d love it if you could get to know us as well.

Schantell Hummel is our newest teammate here at the Chamber. She was hired in August as our program and event coordinator. She is responsible for planning, supporting and executing our programs and events, including the monthly networking breakfasts, the annual awards dinner, the Fourth of July celebration and Top 7 under 40.

She also organizes ribbon cuttings for area businesses and will be restarting our Handshakes and Happy Hour events as soon as we’re able.
“I am really grateful for the opportunity to serve this community,” Hummel says. “This community has brought me so much joy, and I’m so grateful to be a part of the Chamber team.”

Hummel, originally from Renton, graduated from Western Washington University in June 2021 with a degree in business management and has come to love the Bellingham area. In fact, as so many of us do, she knew right away that she didn’t want to leave Whatcom County.

As a member of the Collegiate DECA Association at Western, Hummel organized several large events, including the 2020 Pacific Career Development Conference, for which she won a DECA Association Leadership Award — one of just six students nationwide to do so.

Hummel, the president of WWU’s DECA group for three years, was the main operations person in a business research project conducted in partnership with Bellingham’s ANMLY café.

“That was a great experience,” she says. “I was worried and anxious, but I learned so much.”

Also at DECA, she competed virtually in one event and finished Top 10 in the nation.

A minor in entrepreneurship at Western, Hummel continues to hold a teaching role in that program.

Her teaching experience, which has been conducted mostly online, and her experience managing virtual events have lent themselves well to her first month at the Chamber, Hummel says.

“I love the challenges and problem-solving of virtual events,” she says.

The upcoming Top 7 under 40 event will be something of a hybrid, with some in-person opportunities for the award winners coupled with an online presentation.

“I am really passionate about helping this community and the small business here,” Hummel said. “I can’t wait to meet everyone.”