Greetings Fellow TSHHRA Members!

As I step into my role as President of TSHHRA, I have so many people to thank who have helped pave my way. Thanks to Kim Walker for serving as president in 2010- 2011. Special thanks to Rhonda Reeves who is a past president and stepped in at our last meeting to finish the ’10 – ’11 year for Kim who was detained and unable to join us at the state conference.

Oh, the 2011 TSHHRA State Conference held in Memphis on April 14 and 15. What a success! If you were unable to join us in Memphis, please make plans to attend the next state conference in 2012. It will be hosted in the scenic city of Chattanooga!

The conference attendees in Memphis enjoyed the presentations by many HR leaders from our own health systems who shared best practices! We heard from Mike Cassity from TriStar Health System, Brad Pope of Memorial Health Care System, Jane Van Deren from Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare, and Hamlin Wilson of Wellmont Health Systems.

We will be adding conference information and links to the TSHHRA website so you can always stay current with what is happening in the TSHHRA world. If you are a member, be sure to have your member log-in so you may access your colleagues contact information, board minutes, photos, and so much other relevant information.

Again, thanks to Kim Walker for leading TSHHRA for the past year! She has seen us through a year that continued to be economically challenging for the entire country, not to mention the entire globe! More regionally – there have been shifts in ownership in some of our healthcare systems. This creates great havoc for everyone, particularly HR. Even though employment numbers in healthcare have bucked the national employment trends by being strong, those of us in Human Resources have seen the struggles our companies have had to weather. We still do not know what federal healthcare reform will mean to us. Most of us are experiencing serious issues such as flat wages, new legislation that can strip us of funding or changes in census – whatever your particular challenges are, we all have new hurdles to jump. One of the best ways to work through these challenges is by tapping the resources of our professional groups through your district SHHRA, TSHHRA, ASHHRA or other relative organizations. Utilize their resources and tap into their knowledge and best practices

Together, we’ll tackle these challenges. My fellow healthcare HR professionals, let’s “Power the Future of HR!”

Sincerely,

Rosalie Gibson

President, TSHHRA