Veteran HR leader Kalpana Mistry, SPHR, senior vice president of human resources for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, has won the inaugural Human Capital Business Leader of the Year Award. Initiated by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), this national award recognizes a senior HR professional who executes organizational strategy that directly affects the organization’s performance and prominence.

Mistry joined VITAS, a national hospice care organization based in Miami, in 2002, when a period of rapid company expansion demanded a strong HR presence. Under her direction, the HR department implemented initiatives, both regionally and nationally, to drive employee performance and boost retention.

Mistry uses her role at VITAS and her passion for the science and philosophy of yoga to serve humanitarian purposes. In 2006 she visited her birthplace in Uganda as a representative of both VITAS and the Himalayan Institute for Yoga Science and Philosophy. The group brought funds and support for a newly established hospice program and a bio-fuel project in Uganda similar to one that has already brought employment and social services to thousands of impoverished people in India.