?Mary Jo Swearingen, SHRM-CP, has been named to the Emerging Professionals Advisory Council (EPAC) for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for a two-year term.
EPAC participants are SHRM members who have held an HR or related position for three to five years, and preferably have experience as a SHRM student chapter leader. They have, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree related to HR.
Swearingen serves as an HR business partner at LBMC Employment Partners in Brentwood, Tenn., where her responsibilities include partnering with clients on various HR policies, procedures, laws, standards and government regulations. She also conducts HR assessments of client business practices and processes and responds to employee relations issues. 
Swearingen is one of 10 council members representing SHRM’s five regions—North Central, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Pacific West. Council involvement offers leadership, speaking and travel opportunities, including attendance at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2023.
[SHRM members-only resource: Career Launch: Strategies for Young HR Professionals]
SHRM Online spoke with Swearingen about her HR journey.
HR experience: Swearingen’s first job after graduating from college was serving as human resources specialist for the office of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury in Nashville. In her role, she designed and oversaw learning methods such as online training, coaching and leadership development; served as project manager of two internal employee resource systems; prepared and participated in employee disciplinary actions; and served as FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Coordinator for all 560 employees in the comptroller’s office.
Schooling: Swearingen will receive her master’s degree in strategic leadership in August 2023 from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. In 2020 she received her bachelor’s degree in HR management from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to her SHRM-CP, she earned certification in ethical leadership from the NASBA Center for the Public Trust, a nonprofit subsidiary in Nashville of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, and certification from Bloomberg Market Concept, which provides an introduction to the financial markets.
SHRM involvement: She was vice president of membership development for SHRM’s student chapter at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Her college chapter involvement helped her prepare for her HR career.
Today she is a member of the Middle Tennessee SHRM chapter and in 2023 she became college relations director for the SHRM Tennessee State Council. Swearingen spoke at SHRM’s Regional Council Business Meeting in February on how to recruit and retain emerging professionals into roles as volunteer leaders.
As college relations director, “my goal for the next two years is to engage with all the colleges in Tennessee,” she said.
Why HR? “I remember sitting on my bed [as a high school senior] and going through the catalogues of all the [college] majors,” Swearingen said. She was leaning toward obtaining a business degree when she Googled personality types to help her narrow down a choice of majors.
“[HR is] what came up,” she said.
The business courses didn’t resonate with her until the HR courses, with their people and business perspectives, connected the dots for her.
“Getting into HR felt like finding the final puzzle piece for me because business operations started to click,” she recalled. “It was the best mixture of business acumen … [and] being able to connect with people. I went from being an average student with Cs [to being] on the Dean’s List,” she said. “I got into HR and then things started to click.”
Is there an area of HR you would like to specialize in some day? Talent management and employment law compliance.
Her advice: “It’s better to be a business professional who can speak [with] HR acumen rather than being an HR professional who can speak [with] business acumen” because when you understand the business side “you’re given more trust.”
Role of EPAC Members
The group meets virtually on a monthly basis to:
- Provide feedback or suggestions to SHRM on potential and existing services and experiences for the betterment of emerging professionals (EPs) within the SHRM community.
- Assist SHRM with identifying strategies for gaining and retaining EP members.
- Encourage recognition of EP programs that chapter and state council affiliates lead.
- Connect with other EP members using social media and various local events and activities.
- Promote and coordinate the establishment and support of activities at the local level and strategies that help SHRM student members transition from school into the workforce.