Human Resource Executive, A human relations business magazine, has honored an Austin Public School District employee who has made outstanding contributions.

Christina Picha, director of human resources, was been named to the magazine’s HR Honor Roll.

Winners were recognized Thursday during a special awards dinner sponsored by Monster at the University Club of Chicago.

John M. Murabito, executive vice president of human resources and services for CIGNA Corp., was named 2009 HR Executive of the Year. In addition, the magazine named to its HR Honor Roll V. Michael Ferdinandi, senior vice president of human resources for CVS Caremark; Elease E. Wright, senior vice president of human resources for Aetna; and Natalie Saiz, director of human resources at the Johnson Space Center.

“The HR Executive of the Year award recognizes human resource leaders who have made outstanding contributions to their organizations and who exemplify the increasingly strategic role of HR in business today,” says David Shadovitz, editor of Human Resource Executive.

Arriving in 2002 on the heels of a no-confidence vote for her predecessor, Picha was tasked with mending the rift between management and the six unions that represent the Austin Public Schools District’s 691 employees. By combining her knowledge of the law with a healthy dose of transparency, she played a key role in helping the district and its unions sign more than a dozen binding contracts with little disagreement.

Picha also successfully moved the school district and its unions toward a more consumer-driven approach to health care by negotiating health-savings accounts and a high-deductible health-plan option into employee contracts, thereby saving the district thousands of dollars.

The judges based their selections on the following criteria: the candidate’s ability to handle significant problems or obstacles in the human resource field, the candidate’s role and/or success in establishing the human resource function as an integral part of his or her organization, the candidate’s management skills as demonstrated within the human resource function and his or her contributions to the HR profession as a whole.

The 2009 HR Executive of the Year and HR Honor Roll winners will be profiled in the Oct. 2 issue of Human Resource Executive, which has a circulation of 75,000 HR vice presidents and directors.