December 9, 2022 – Chris Tatum, Amarillo ISD Chief Human Resources Officer, was honored as the 2022 Mary Hopkins Personnel Administrator of the Year. Tatum received the award at the Texas Association of School Personnel Administrators' Winter Conference.
His nomination included various qualities and characteristics, such as his time and efforts to support TASPA and the West Texas group of TASPA members (WTASPA).
“Chris is highly involved in TASPA and WTASPA. He has been an active member of both organizations for 10 years. He contributes to the agendas, surveys and discussions,” said Karen Atkinson, AISD Director of Elementary Personnel, who nominated Tatum for the award. “Chris possesses a great wealth of knowledge pertaining to policies and laws. He consistently interfaces with new HR professionals and makes them aware of the TASPA and WTASPA as great resources for them in their new role.”
Tatum’s efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic were also mentioned in the nomination.
“Chris developed COVID-19 reporting forms and guidelines [for AISD] that the local health department embraced, and that were used by area school districts as a model, and shared with other Public Health Departments,” said Atkinson. “He worked tirelessly in conjunction with all three entities and our nurses to implement an effective and efficient drive-through COVID-19 testing site and ensured our school nurses received appropriate training and compensation for this.”
The Dr. Mary Hopkins Personnel Administrator of the Year Award recognizes an individual who has been a TASPA member for at least three years and who has at least five years experience in Human Resources/personnel. The person must possess leadership ability, a high degree of personal and professional integrity, and the ability to recruit members to the organization, and he/she volunteers to support our activities.
Additionally, the individual must demonstrate high involvement in the human resources TASPA community both at their TASPA regional level and state-wide and possess solid skills and understanding in matters pertaining to human resource and personnel administration.
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