PSHRA Awards Program
PSHRA is home to HR professionals who have given tirelessly to the advancement of our profession. We recognize the outstanding accomplishments of our members and the work they do on behalf of their agencies.
Excellence in Public Sector HR
PSHRA recognizes the accomplishments of its individual and agency members, chapters, and volunteers with its annual Awards of Excellence.
Awards celebrate the achievements of exemplary leaders and advocates whose contributions have advanced public sector HR. Awardees have created better places to work for those who serve the public good.
2026 PSHRA Award Applications are Now Open!
Agency Award of Excellence - recognizes the overall quality, accomplishments, and contributions of an agency human resource program that exceeds the normal operation of a “good government human resource program.” The awards are based on the lenses and focus areas contained in the HR 20/20 Report: The PSHRA Guide to Transformative HR released in 2020. Additional information on the report.
Awards may be given in each of the following categories, based on the number of employees covered by your human resource program:
1) Small Agency – Under 1,999, employees
2) Medium Agency – 2,000 to 9,999 employees
3) Large Agency – 10,000 and over
The Awards will be based on program initiatives, accomplishments, and contributions within the three-year time period immediately preceding the nomination. Agencies nominated must be and have been a PSHRA Agency member with a minimum of 3 years' consecutive membership.
All applications will be considered as final entries.
Application Deadline: May 31, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET.
Honorary Life Memberships - recognizes and honors persons who have rendered distinguished service in advancing or upholding the purposes of the Association. Honorary Life Members shall have at no fee (recipient will no longer be charged a fee for membership), all the rights and privileges of Individual members, including the right to hold Association office and to vote on all issues requiring a decision by the membership. According to the PSHRA bylaws, “Not more than two persons can be awarded Honorary Life Memberships in one year.”
All nominations will be considered as final entries.
Application Deadline: May 31, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET.
Chapter Award of Excellence - recognizes those chapters who significantly advance and enhance the human resource profession through innovative membership recruitment/retention strategies, excellent educational programs, and quality member communications.
Award Criteria: The Award will be based on membership recruitment/retention strategies, educational programs, and member communications.
Who is Eligible?: All PSHRA Chapters. Please note: Chapters nominated must have submitted their current and previous year’s chapter reporting form and be current in paying their united membership fee.
All applications will be considered as final entries.
Application Deadline: May 31, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET.
If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected].
2025 Award Winners:
President's Award
The President’s Award recognizes the current PSHRA president for leadership of the association and in the field of public sector HR. Andrea Cutler, PSHRA-SCP, 2025 PSHRA® President, is the recipient of the 2025 President’s Award.
Andrea has more than 30 years of experience in public sector human resources, and has been with full service and contract cities in southern California.
After retiring, Andrea moved to Las Vegas, where she continues to do consulting work. She has served on the PSHRA Executive Council, the Western Region Board, the Southern California, and Nevada chapter boards and in several international committees.
She received the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award from PSHRA in 2019, the Muriel Morse Achievement from the Western Region in 2015, and the Gunther Dumalski Lifetime Membership award from the Southern California Chapter in 2016.
PSHRA Honorary Life Membership
Honorary Life Memberships are to recognize and honor persons who have rendered distinguished service in advancing or upholding the purposes of the Association.
Cheryl Lewis Smith, PSHRA-SCP is the recipient of the 2025 Honorary Life Membership, given to recognize and honor those who have rendered distinguished service in advancing or upholding the purposes of the Association.
Cheryl has served PSHRA in a variety of roles, most recently as Association President-elect in 2022, President in 2023 and Past President in 2024, as well as an at-large member of the Executive Council beginning in 2019.
Cheryl has also served in various PSHRA committee roles through her participation on the PSHRA Fellowship/Scholarship Committee and the 2013-2015 PSHRA Nominating Committee. In 2023, Cheryl was recognized with the PSHRA President’s Award, in honor of her commitment to leading the Association and its mission.
Agency of Excellence Award
The Agency Award of Excellence recognizes the quality, accomplishments, and contributions of an outstanding agency human resource program. Annual awards may be made in any of three categories based on agency workforce size.
Small Agency Award
The Small Agency Award is presented to an agency of up to 1,999 employees.
The 2025 Small Agency Award has been awarded to The City of Roseville, Calif. In 2025, the City of Roseville rolled out initiatives including Be Well COR(E), a citywide wellness initiative designed to foster a positive and thriving workplace environment by supporting the City’s approximately 1,300 full-time employees and 300-700 temporary employees in their efforts to improve their physical, mental and financial well-being.
Medium Agency Award
The Medium Agency Award is presented to an agency of 2,000 to 9,999 employees.
DeKalb County Government (Ga.) is the recipient of the 2025 Medium Agency Award. With roughly 6,500 employees across 44 departments, DeKalb County Government serves a population of more than 765,000 residents and 18,000 businesses.
The County’s HR team’s recent achievements include helping to transform the way policy is developed, communicated and executed across the organization through its Policy Council program, an all-digital, data-informed platform that acts as a central mechanism for advancing HR’s role in shaping leadership, culture, talent, technology and communications countywide.
Large Agency Award
The Large Agency Award is presented to an agency of 10,000 employees or more.
The 2025 recipient of the Large Agency Award is the Louisiana State Civil Service.
The Louisiana State Civil Service rolled out a number of initiatives designed to help it excel at providing public services above and beyond the norm. For example, the agency—which has more than 38,000 employees—introduced its skills-first Hiring Framework strategy, developed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of talent acquisition within state government.
Chapter Award of Excellence
The Chapter Award of Excellence recognizes a chapter that has significantly advanced and enhanced the public sector HR profession through innovative membership recruitment/retention strategies, excellent educational programs, and quality member communication.
The 2025 recipient is PSHRA’s Nevada Chapter. The Nevada Chapter has experienced significant growth in membership, including expansion into Northern Nevada. The Nevada Chapter has also prioritized the delivery of high-impact and future-focused content to HR professionals in the state, securing nationally recognized speakers for Chapter events and collaborating with partner organizations to offer broader resources and specialized content.
Making public sector work better®.
Past Awards
Warner W. Stockberger Achievement Award
The Stockberger Achievement Award was established in 1948 to honor the memory of Dr. Warner W. Stockberger, the first director of personnel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who also served as the first president of the Society for Personnel Administration. The award recognized and honored a person in public or private life who has made an outstanding contribution toward the improvement of public personnel management at any level of government.