Letter from the Director
Greetings, SHR Center alumni, partners, and friends,
As we welcome this fall season and homecoming week, we are delighted to provide you with updates and information about our Strategic Human Resource Management Center. We hope you enjoy reading this issue of our newsletter which introduces our Class of 2026, reviews our successful SHR Symposium 2024, offers you an opportunity to participate in important research on breastfeeding in the workplace, and more.
Reflecting upon the summer and the first two months of our fall semester, I could not be more grateful or more excited. With the month of thanks just around the corner, our SHR Center has so much for which to be thankful. We are celebrating a significant milestone – our 20th year anniversary of our official SHR specialization in the Wisconsin School of Business MBA program (thanks Barry Gerhart!). Our Class of 2024 are placed and already giving back by helping current students with SHRM Certification prep, mock interviews, and internship placement. We have an incredible combined cohort of fourteen SHR MBA students, as ten SHR MBAs joined our four Class of 2025 students. (Please follow our LinkedIn page to learn more about them.) We have intelligent and engaged faculty to teach our students, a few of whom are highlighted below. We were recently named the #5 Best MBA Program for Human Resources by The Princeton Review, and with each week, we are advancing our outreach and developing relationships with more alumni, partners, and employers who want to support our students, our school, important research, and our human resources profession. Many of you attended or were involved with our recent activities and events: mock interviews, conversations with alumni in our Center or virtually, our HR Professionals Day celebration, and our SHR Symposium 2024.
We’re excited about the journey ahead and grateful for your continued involvement in our growing community. Please reach out to me if you’d like to get more involved by participating as an advisory board member, a class speaker, a project sponsor, a trek host, a mentor, or a recruiter. We also welcome you to make a gift that will help support opportunities for our students. We thank you again for your partnership and engagement and look forward to continued conversations with you.
On, Wisconsin!
Tanya Hubanks, Director
Strategic Human Resource Management Center
SHR Center News
SHR Symposium 2024
Our SHR Symposium 2024: Engaging Minds, Creating Connections, Future Thinking, Now was an unforgettable experience. Held on Friday, September 27 at the Pyle Center in Madison, Wisconsin, students, alumni, Wisconsin School of Business faculty and staff, and industry professionals engaged in conversations about human resources trends, attended HR learning sessions, and networked over lunch and our Seyfarth reception overlooking Lake Mendota. Our presenters and sponsors were a primary reason for the success – thank you!
Read more about the Symposium here
Student Perspectives on the SHR Symposium
SHR Symposium 2024: Putting the Human Back in Human Resources
First-year SHR MBA student, Megan Howard, attended the SHR Symposium for the first time. In her blog, she explains the impact the Symposium had on her and her key takeaways, including being true to your core values, embracing and planning for the future, and keeping the humanity in human resources. Read Megan’s blog here.
Reflections on SHR Symposium 2024: Celebrating Two Decades of Human Resources Excellence
Laura Peck is a first-year SHR MBA student that attended the SHR Symposium. She goes over the different sessions she attended and what she learned from them. Read more about Laura’s experience at the link below! Read Laura’s blog here.
Save the Date for SHR Symposium 2025!
Friday, October 3, 2025
SHR Symposium 2025 will be an all-day event held at the Pyle Center in Madison, Wisconsin. More details on registration and the agenda will be shared closer to the date.
Welcoming the Class of 2026
This past August, we welcomed ten SHR MBA students to the Wisconsin School of Business and the Strategic Human Resource Management Center at orientation. (Read more about their orientation experience here!) Our students come to Madison from locations across the country, from Texas to Utah to New York City. They have a diverse range of backgrounds and lived and work experiences and all are eager to learn everything HR. With the first few months behind us, we can accurately say these students are a group of rockstars! Interested in connecting with them? Their LinkedIn profiles are below:
- Adam Barton
- Ty Day
- Ja’Nieka Forward
- Hannah Goldberg
- Megan Howard
- Tara Marley
- Calli Moraska
- Laura Peck
- Eshani Singh
- David Wilson
Our SHR Mentor Program for this group will begin with an introductory meeting late this year, with an official start date of January 2025. Thanks to those of you who have volunteered to be their professional mentors!
Faculty News & Media Mentions
Four MHR professors have been recognized in the Wisconsin School of Business’ Trusted to Lead campaign. Videos on each of the professors with more information on how they are making an impact can be found below. Along with their feature, Jirs Meuris, Stav Atir, and Chia-Jung Tsay were awarded competitive funding in their research projects from the Institute for Diversity Science. Learn more about the award and the researchers at the page here.
Barry Gerhart
Barry Gerhart was awarded an Award of Excellence at the 2024 SHR Symposium. He was recognized for over twenty years of outstanding contributions to the SHR Center, students, and alumni.
Jirs Meuris
Jirs Meuris, Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources, was featured by the Wisconsin School of Business for his research in investigating change management solutions. Watch this video to learn more.
Stav Atir
Stav Atir, Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources, examines how people evaluate – and misevaluate – their own expertise. She is trusted to lead when there is no blueprint. Watch this video to learn more.
Chia-Jung Tsay
Chia-Jung Tsay, Associate Professor of Management and Human Resources, is conducting research on exposing the biases that affect how people evaluate performance. Learn more about her and her research at the video here.
Jon Eckhardt
Jon Eckhardt is the Pyle Bascom Professor in Business Leadership at the Wisconsin School of Business. Learn more about Jon and how he leverages research to cultivate entrepreneurs at the video here.
Industry Partner Highlights
UnitedHealth Group Visits WSB
Thanks to Joe Rohde (SHR MBA, ’21), Associate People Business Partner, and Erin Faella, People Team Development Rotational Associate, who travelled to Madison to speak with SHR students about summer internship opportunities at UHG. SHR first year students appreciated the opportunity to learn about his experience.
HR Professionals Day
Local HR professionals, alumni, and WSB faculty and staff joined the SHR Center to celebrate HR Professionals Day on September 26. We enjoyed Bucky Badger cookies, chatting with other HR interested folks, and celebrating the human resources field.
SHR is trekking Again: Chicago, March 2025
The 2025 SHR Center MBA Trek will be to Chicago, Illinois on March 13 and 14, 2025. Are you based in Chicago and interested in hosting a site visit? Please email shr@wsb.wisc.edu with your questions and suggestions. We would love to talk with you about this collaboration opportunity!
Be part of a research opportunity!
Human Resources Directors and Managers,
We are conducting research exploring the experiences of Human Resources Directors or Managers in providing support for those employees wishing to combine breastfeeding (or chest feeding) and employment. We would be interested in speaking with you, or if appropriate, another member of the Human Resources Department, on your experiences in providing breastfeeding support to employees.
We would conduct an interview over Zoom, which we would record and transcribe, that would take about one hour. Following transcription of the interview, the recording would be destroyed. Your interview would remain confidential, with results never including your name, company name or location. The interview can be conducted at a time and from whatever location is convenient for you.
To compensate you for your time, we would provide an Amazon e-gift card for $100.
If you would like to participate, recommend another person to participate, or would like more information, please email me at bholson@wisc.edu, or call me at 608-265-2108. Please let me know the best time and email with which to contact you.
Thank you for considering this request.
Sincerely,
Beth H. Olson, PhD.
Associate Professor, Nutritional Sciences Department
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Supporting the SHR Center
SHR Center Seeks Increased Enrollment
The Class of 2026 began their year with orientation and have enthusiastically embraced their studies. Please connect us with your colleagues who are interested in obtaining an MBA in human resources. We would enjoy speaking with them, and receiving their applications–maybe even for the Class of 2027.
Make a 2024 Gift to the SHR Center
Making a gift to support our Strategic Human Resource Management Center is simple and greatly appreciated. Gift funds support invaluable initiatives within SHR, such as financing industry visits, partially funding conference attendance, case competitions, SHRM membership, and certification exam fees. Larger donations will enable us to attract the best and brightest graduate students by offering scholarships. Will you consider making a donation? Give to SHR, or reach out to Center Director Tanya Hubanks if you would like to discuss additional gift options.
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow our page on LinkedIn to stay up to date with SHR news. Check out our new alumni, student, and speaker spotlight series to read about the people who are part of our work. If you are interested in being a featured alumni, let us know!
Hire Our Students or Be a Mentor
Interested in hiring one of our SHR MBA graduates? Interested in mentoring a SHR MBA student? Email our team at the link below to discover ways to be involved or to learn more about the either the hiring process or mentorship experience!
Join our Mailing List
Know anyone who might be interested in receiving our newsletter? Direct them to the link below to join the SHR mailing list to receive updates and invitations to events.
Be a Part of SHR Symposium 2025
Are you, your company, your firm, or your organization interested in supporting our Center through sponsorship or being a speaker at our symposium? Different sponsorship options are available; you may also be a student supporter. Our SHR Center and students appreciate your consideration to be a sponsor or speaker.
Reach out for sponsorship and speaker opportunities »
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