The Office of Human Resources is proud to announce that our Talent Acquisition Team and their leadership were recently honored with multiple awards from the Pittsburgh Human Resources Association.
The PHRA presented the awards to our colleagues at their 2026 Engaging Pittsburgh: Innovative People Practices Awards. This event honored innovative employers who have successfully implemented initiatives to enhance workplace culture, foster diversity, support professional development, strengthen team collaboration, and improve talent retention.
Pitt's Talent Acquisition Team was honored in the PHRA's Talent Recruitment & Acquisition Category. This award recognizes organizations that excel at sourcing, attracting, and hiring top talent by using innovative strategies, such as employer branding, data-driven recruitment, candidate experience improvements, and strategic partnerships. They were singled out for their data-driven decision-making, focusing on benchmarking and strategic planning to enhance recruitment practices.
Winning their Leader of the Year award was Pitt's Director of Talent Acquisition Lisa Garland. Honored for her exceptional leadership, the PHRA noted that Lisa Garland has built a high-performing, resilient team through data-driven decision-making, employee development, and strategic partnerships. Some examples given were how she refocused her team toward professional development during a hiring freeze that halted most of their regular work, as well as intentional culture building efforts and championing individualized work structures to support well-being, while maintaining service excellence.
"Lisa and her Talent Acquisition team are constantly demonstrating innovation and excellence in their recruitment, hiring and onboarding initiatives on behalf of the University, which directly leads to the high level of employee excellence that Pitt gets recognized for, time and time again. Congratulations to Lisa and her colleagues for this well-deserved honor," Vice Chancellor for Human Resources James W. Gallaher Jr. said.