CERTIFIED May. 2014 | Page 4

Dear Certified Colleague, W C ertified , our award - winning publication that includes interviews with and profiles of certified HR professionals, highlights new certificants and focuses on issues that affect them. elcome to the fourth issue of In this issue, we are pleased to include features written by HR professionals who hold one of our certifications. These contributions are important to us because we want this publication to be a true platform for engagement and idea sharing between our certificant holders. Thank you to those who took the time to put their thoughts on paper for us, and we hope you take away some great best practices for your work in human resources. In that same vein, we chose 38 HR professionals under the age of 38 to interview about the skills that HR professionals need to master today to be successful tomorrow. We also asked what they think are the breakthroughs that need to be made in human resources and what they want the “rest of the world” to know about how human resources has changed. I think we all should be listening to these leaders. Please also learn more about the Institute’s new Executive Director, Amy Schabacker Dufrane, Ed.D., SPHR, CAE, by reading her profile on page 18. Amy started out as an HR professional, and her drive and innate leadership capabilities have helped her to evolve her career into that of a “C-suite” level executive. She is a great example of how businesses are looking at human resources differently. Instead of the “personnel issue” troubleshooter of the past, the HR professional is seen today as a strategist, business partner and leader. Please take a moment to read about how Amy feels about her career, the exciting growth occurring within the Institute and why she chose to become certified. I hope you will take the time to read and learn from your peers through their articles in this issue of Certified. There are many pearls of wisdom in this issue, and I hope that you will find some that you can apply in your day-today activities in human resources. I also encourage you to read Certified with an eye to what articles you would like to see in it and – even more so – what articles you might want to share with us for it. We want this publication to be a true platform for idea-sharing among our certificants. Please feel free to share your ideas with us at [email protected]. Thank you and enjoy Certified, Clarissa Peterson, SPHR, GPHR Chief Human Resources and Ethics Officer, Abt Associates HR Certification Institute Board Chair 2 CERTIFIED 2014: Volume I www.HRCI.org