The Rising Star Award is annually presented to an individual who is relatively new to the HR profession – and yet, they have shown themselves to be innovated, impactful, and effective in their work and contributions.

2025 Award Recipient

Nya Tarry exemplifies her organization’s core values—People, Innovation, Passion, and Excellence—through their impactful contributions and consistent interactions. Nya fosters compassionate relationships and builds strong connections with employees and vendor partners, enhancing trust and professional engagement. Her leadership in shaping initiatives like the intern program and wellness efforts demonstrates a commitment to creating an inclusive, supportive environment. She addressed staffing challenges by developing a talent pipeline in partnership with VCU Business Connections, empowering individuals with disabilities and enhancing operational efficiency. Additionally, she crafted scalable compliance structures for multi-state operations and expertly led wellness initiatives and HRIS platform implementation, showcasing resilience and commitment to excellence.

Nya has demonstrated remarkable dedication and initiative, taking ownership of their career with passion as their compass. They express this sentiment by saying, “I still possess the same passion and hope it’s evident through my work and my patience with others. I’m eager to learn and excited to be a trusted resource for those inside and outside the organization.” Their emotional intelligence and trusted leadership distinguish them as a “rising star” in HR, deeply valued by peers and leaders alike.

2024 Award Recipient

Savannah Ripley has shown exceptional initiative and collaboration, with a deep passion for employee retention. She has fostered a positive work culture and handled diverse HR responsibilities in her role.
Despite being new, Savannah made a significant impact by implementing a solution that increased engagement and improved retention.

Savannah also managed various aspects of HR, collaborated effectively with the department, and fostered trust with strong communication skills. Above all, Savannah genuinely cares for the well-being of her fellow employees.

2023 Award Recipient

Dara Lewis, our 2023 Richmond SHRM Rising Star award recipient, is the true definition of a rising star. Since 2020, Dara has created programs and initiatives around the areas of employee appreciation, orientation, onboarding, and recruitment. She has also created a new program for peer interns, assisted with the creation of a new advertisement plan centered around talent acquisition and planned and lead the first agency-wide career fair and created a virtual recruitment event. Dara is passionate about the field of HR and considers herself a continuous learner that wants to make a difference in this ever-changing industry.

2022 Award Recipient

HR Manager
Schnabel Engineering

With just a year of human resources experience as an HR Program Manager, Alexandra Wiles has contributed significant, innovative, and impactful work in the areas of company culture and mentoring, business continuity, learning and development and employee relations. A Schnabel Engineering leader describes Wiles as “phenomenal” and stated that she has “proven to be a steward of the profession”. Praised for her contributions for greatly enhancing staff feelings of safety in the workplace, Wiles was an integral part of her company’s success with their Return to Office initiative. She developed a critical employee feedback survey, analyzed data, and provided insights that helped defined best strategies for moving forward.

"Alex is the HR Program Manager in the Schnabel Engineering HR group and she joined over a year ago... she is phenomenal! She has only been in the HR profession for a year, and already she has proved to be a steward of the profession and has enhanced the profile of our HR organization internally. Alex has contributed significant, innovative and impactful work to our organization in the short time she has been with us - in the areas of company culture and Mentoring Business Continuity, Learning and Development, and Employee Relations - just to name a few."

2021 Award Recipient

Senior Human Resources Client Partner
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Felicia was nominated for the award by her manager who credits Felicia with helping to streamline their recruiting process, serving as the “go to” person for training and development, and being instrumental in their transition to online processes during COVID. Another VMFA leader described Felicia as “a natural leader and motivated self-starter who is interested in transforming her workplace, one project at a time”.

2020 Award Recipient

Director of HR
Key Independent Development Services 

Her CEO wrote this about her: "Above all, Turqueya makes the team feel valued, worthy and capable of our goals and objectives. Not only does she lead our HR Initiatives, she also passionately believes in our mission and the work we do to help empower and change the lives of those with mental health and/or developmental disabilities and delays. Turqueya is our RISING STAR!"