I am so honored to be Chairing the 2022 Arkansas SHRM HR Conference & Expo, Taking You HigheR. It’s hard to believe we are celebrating our 35th consecutive year. It is also my 30th year to be associated with this conference – with a few detours along the way. As a matter of fact, it was 30 years ago this year that I attended my first state conference in Hot Springs at the Arlington Hotel. There were a lot fewer attendees and exhibitors than we have now, but the conference was a huge turning point in my career. At the time, I had just started working for a company whose COO would one day become a State Council Director, serving from 2004-2006. It was that COO that encouraged me to embrace the HR profession. I have been a SHRM member since 1992 and earned my PHR certification in 2018.
Having grown up in Memphis, Tennessee, where I attended Memphis State University, now University of Memphis, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was fortunate to have been recruited into the Manager Training Program at General Electric. A few months into my new adventure, I was asked to move to Chicago, which I was excited to do. It did not take long during my time in Chicago to realize that I was not well suited for the career track I was on. I moved back to Arkansas in 1988 and accepted a position with a staffing company and I found a role that I could embrace for the rest of my professional career.
In 1992, I joined Brewer Personnel, which later became Staffmark. This was the point in my life when I realized HR would be my lifelong passion. My fist volunteer role for ARSHRM was as the Exhibitor Chair for the 1992 conference. Back then, the conference committee would meet at the conference venue each month to plan the conference. Those were fun times and allowed me to develop lifelong relationships with HR Professionals all over the state. I remained as the Exhibit Chair each year until accepting a job transfer with Staffmark that took me to Portland, Oregon. While in Portland, I volunteered with Pacific Northwest Human Resource Association.
In 2000, I decided to try my hand at being a small business owner and spent the next eight years leading a small boutique staffing agency. During this time, I served as the President of the Downtown Employers Association. Our group worked closely with city and state leaders to advocate for small employers in Downtown Portland. In early 2008, family obligations called me home to Memphis to care for aging parents. After the deaths of both parents within six weeks of each other, I ended up back in Arkansas and reconnected with old friends from my early career days. It did not take long to be recruited back into volunteering.
Over the last decade, I served on the Central Arkansas HR Association (CAHRA) board for six years and, in 2019, served as CAHRA President. During this time, I have continued to be involved in our state conference as the Exhibit Chair. I have had the pleasure of working with many amazing HR folks who are passionate about the work that they do. Without them, these conferences would be difficult to deliver.
I am grateful that in my current role as an HR Partner for Arkansas Blue Cross, they are very supportive of my passion or volunteering in the HR community. Currently, I serve on the ARSHRM State Council as the Director – At Large Members and on the Northwest Arkansas HR Association Board as the Chair of College Relations.
It is with great pride that I welcome you to our conference and hope that after your experience here in Hot Springs, you will agree that we took you HIGHER and provided you valuable tools and resources that will benefit you and your organization.