Help us recognize those HR Professionals who elevate workplaces across Utah.

Emerging HR Professional of the Year

Lisa Marie Johnson

Lisa Marie Johnson is an enthusiastic healthcare Human Resources leader who currently serves as Human Resources Project Coordinator with HCA Healthcare’s Mountain Division, following leadership roles as HR Vice President at Lone Peak Hospital and HR Manager at Cache Valley Hospital. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration–Human Resource Management from Western Governors University.

Throughout her career, Lisa has advanced employee engagement, onboarding, retention, compliance, and leadership development across healthcare organizations. Her ability to combine strategic HR leadership with genuine service to employees and leaders reflects the meaningful impact she continues to make in the profession.

HR Engagement Award

Teri Slaugh

Teri Slaugh is a strategic HR and business leader who currently serves as Account Manager with Diversified Background Checks, where she applies extensive experience in HR, talent strategy, business development, and organizational leadership. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Utah and has continued her professional development through advanced HR and leadership education.

Her career includes senior leadership and professional service across the HR community. Teri’s ability to connect people, strategy, and business outcomes has established her as an influential leader, mentor, and advocate for the profession.

HR Professional of the Year

Blake Hudson

Blake Hudson is an accomplished People Operations leader who has transformed HR from a reactive operation into a structured, strategic function. While serving as a one-person People Operations team, Blake has led compensation, compliance, employee relations, performance management, and organizational infrastructure initiatives. His efforts contributed to reducing employee turnover from approximately 40% to 15% and increasing eNPS from 0 to 30, demonstrating a meaningful improvement in both retention and employee engagement.

Blake has also built foundational systems that support long-term organizational growth, including a comprehensive compensation framework, job architecture, career ladders, performance-management processes, and compliance and employee-relations infrastructure. His work has increased transparency, strengthened employee trust, and improved organizational maturity while creating a more sustainable HR function. Beyond his organization, Blake contributes to the HR profession through active involvement in the local professional community and volunteer leadership.

HR Thought Leader of the Year

Jonathan Westover

Jonathan Westover is an internationally recognized scholar, educator, consultant, and thought leader whose work has helped make evidence-based HR, leadership, engagement, and organizational research accessible to practitioners and leaders around the world. With more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, numerous practitioner-focused articles, and a globally distributed leadership and HR podcast, Jonathan has built a career around translating rigorous research into practical tools and actionable insights that organizations and professionals can apply to real-world challenges.

Jonathan’s influence extends across academia, consulting, publishing, and professional development. He has developed original assessment tools and consulting methodologies, published influential research on job satisfaction, engagement, leadership, and organizational effectiveness, and created educational programs serving thousands of learners. Through his research, teaching, speaking, consulting, and content creation, Jonathan has reached students, researchers, executives, and HR professionals across countries and industries, creating a broad and lasting impact on the HR profession.

Inaugural HR Lifetime Achievement Award

Frances A. Hume

SPHR, GPHR

Frances A. Hume, SPHR, GPHR has done more to influence the human resources profession, not only in Utah but around the globe, than perhaps any other person.

She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Utah, MBA program. She is the founder and owner of Hume 'n Resources and held many executive positions and served on numerous boards for more than 45 years. She has volunteered for the Society for Human Resource Management at the national, regional, state, and chapter levels. She helped write the Human Resources Certification Institute's certification tests and taught thousands of professionals the information necessary to pass them.

She is a mother, grandmother, and wife to a wonderful family.

2026 Frances Hume HR Lifetime Achievement Award

Christine R. Healy

PhD, PHR, SHRM-CP, CEBS

Dr. Christine Healy is a strategically focused HR leader and educator who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Management at Utah Tech University, where she teaches human resources, organizational behavior, management, and human relations. Her career also includes senior HR leadership with Southern Utah University, Performance Food Group, Sysco, Wells Enterprises, and McLane Company.

Christine earned her PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Walden University, a Master of Arts in Human Resource Management from Webster University, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Central Texas. With extensive industry, teaching, consulting, and community experience, she has devoted her career to developing people, strengthening organizations, and advancing the HR profession.