About Us
Serving Wise and Surrounding Counties
The Southwest Virginia (SWVA) Chapter of SHRM was founded in 1984, with the charter meeting held at the Duffield Ramada Inn. The driving force behind its formation was Joy Manufacturing HR Manager Allen Dougherty. A core group of around 20 HR professionals from all across SWVA worked very hard to get the chapter going, with mining related HR folks, healthcare, manufacturing, and small business represented.
Among the charter members of the chapter were Allen, Clark Phipps, Mike Cassity of Westmoreland Coal, Joe Pendergast of Pittston Coal, Gary Hale of the VEC, and about a dozen others. Meetings were held across SWVA, going to Abingdon, Lebanon, Norton, Wise, Duffield, Castlewood, and anywhere else a member suggested we meet. This became a very close knit group of HR professional who were always a source of knowledge, advice, and information to their colleagues. Many of the professional and personal friendship developed during those early years still exist today.
Our group seeks to provide area human resource professionals and business leaders with useful information, education, and energizing discussions related to the HR field.
