26 Human Resources Leaders in U.S. Public Service

Last updated: 9 August 2026.

Introduction

People work in public service is easy to underestimate. It sits behind every city service, public utility, university, regulator and transport network, yet the people leading it often work across complex systems that the public rarely sees.

This list brings together 26 human resources leaders in U.S. public service. The group includes Chief People Officers, Chief Human Resources Officers and Chief Human Capital Officers across local, state and federal agencies, public universities, utilities and transit bodies.

Why this topic matters

Public-service HR is not only about hiring and policy. It is also about making a public mission real for employees, building trust across unions and leaders, managing scarce skills, and helping people understand what good work looks like.

The leaders below show how wide that remit can be. Some are modernising a city people function. Others are connecting human capital to a federal mission, a statewide system, a utility network or the daily movement of a region.

Leaders to know

1. Alex Lawrence, City of Boston

Alex Lawrence is Chief People Officer for the City of Boston. She oversees the People Operations Cabinet, which brings together central human resources, labour relations, the registry and several workforce-related functions. Her previous City Hall leadership, including work as interim Chief Information Officer, gives her a useful view of how people systems and service systems connect.

2. Erica Collins, City of Chattanooga

Erica Collins serves as Chief Human Resources Officer for the City of Chattanooga. She joined the city after senior HR roles in behavioural health and insurance, at a time when Chattanooga was strengthening its public-sector hiring approach. Her role shows that a city people leader has to improve both the employee experience and the practical path into public service.

3. Candi Jones, City of Philadelphia

Candi Blossom Jones is Director and Chief Human Resource Officer for the City of Philadelphia. She is responsible for human resources across the city workforce and has a particular interest in employee engagement, inclusion and pathways into meaningful government careers. That combination matters because a large public employer needs both reliable systems and a clear reason for people to join.

4. Sheridan Richards, City of Little Rock

Sheridan Richards is Chief People Officer for the City of Little Rock. Her remit covers the practical backbone of city employment, including benefits, civil service, classification, compensation, employee relations, labour negotiations, development and recruitment. Her background in people and culture work also gives her a useful bridge between day-to-day HR and wider organisational development.

5. Joveta Turner, Macon-Bibb County

Joveta Turner is Chief Human Resources Officer for Macon-Bibb County. Her public-sector career includes an earlier role as assistant chief human resources officer and a period as interim CHRO before her appointment to the permanent role. Her path is a reminder that public-service leadership is often built through repeated responsibility inside the same community.

6. Tracey Pierce, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Tracey Pierce is Chief People Officer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. She leads the people strategy for one of the largest municipal utilities in the United States and works across human resources, workforce development and labour relationships. Utility HR leaders operate close to the service mission because the workforce is part of the infrastructure the public relies on.

7. Michelle Tucker, CalPERS

Michelle Tucker is Chief Human Resources Officer for CalPERS. Her work spans culture, talent, engagement and learning, which are central concerns for an agency serving public employees and retirees. Her long state-government career shows how public HR leadership can grow through a deep understanding of the systems employees themselves depend on.

8. Adam Garrett, South Carolina Department of Environmental Services

Adam Garrett is Chief Human Resources Officer for the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. His responsibilities include employee relations, performance, benefits, safety, recruitment, retention, payroll and training. That broad portfolio is typical of a state agency where the people function has to support both compliance and mission delivery.

9. Tony Gherardini, University of Colorado

Tony Gherardini is Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for the University of Colorado system. Before moving into higher education, he led Colorado's state personnel agency, giving him experience with a large public workforce and a statewide people system. That background is valuable in a university system where the workforce is spread across different campuses and missions.

10. Juanita Hicks, University of Georgia

Juanita Hicks is Senior Associate Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at the University of Georgia. Her earlier work with the University System of Georgia connected her to HR across a broad public higher-education network. She represents the system-level view of university HR, where consistent services have to work across many institutions without losing local context.

11. Darryl Wright-Greene, North Carolina A&T State University

Darryl Wright-Greene is Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer at North Carolina A&T State University. His appointment places him at the centre of the university's workforce systems, including faculty, staff and student personnel. The role illustrates how public university HR has to support both institutional operations and the people who deliver education and research.

12. Nickole Conley, University of Alaska

Nickole Conley is Chief Human Resources Officer for the University of Alaska. She moved from an interim appointment into the permanent role after a long career across university HR, finance and planning. That continuity matters in a multi-campus system where process knowledge and trusted relationships can be as important as a new strategy.

13. Katie Thomas, Boise State University

Katie Thomas is Chief Human Resources Officer at Boise State University. She returned to Boise State after more than a decade working across Idaho higher education. Her career is a useful example of how public universities can retain leaders by giving them room to build experience and then bring it back to the institution.

14. Angie Dangerfield, Idaho State University

Angie Dangerfield is Associate Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Idaho State University. She brings two decades of higher-education experience to the role, with a focus on strategic leadership, talent acquisition and compensation. The distinctive challenge in university HR is to make those systems work for academic, professional and support staff at the same time.

15. Donny Beasley, Tarleton State University

Donny Beasley is Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Tarleton State University. His portfolio connects human resources with civil rights and the broader responsibility to make a public university a fair place to work and learn. That is an important reminder that people leadership is also about the conditions in which a public mission is carried out.

16. Cheryl Lloyd, University of California system

Cheryl Lloyd is Senior Vice President for Human Resources for the University of California system. Her systemwide remit reaches across campuses and medical centres, each with its own workforce pressures and public responsibilities. Leaders at this level have to create shared standards while keeping close enough to the operating reality of each institution.

17. Arron Helm, General Services Administration

Arron Helm is Chief Human Capital Officer for the General Services Administration. The role brings together workforce planning, talent, labour relations and people analytics for a large federal agency. It is a strong example of human capital work being treated as an operating system for government rather than as a support desk.

18. Jessica Palatka, U.S. Department of Commerce

Jessica Palatka is Chief Human Capital Officer for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Her remit covers a large workforce spread across every U.S. state, territories and international locations, and includes policy, programmes and human-capital management. She also teaches HR and business, which gives her work a useful connection between practice and learning.

19. Beth Shearer, Government Publishing Office

Elizabeth, known as Beth, Shearer is Chief Human Capital Officer for the Government Publishing Office. She leads HR systems and policies while balancing the agency's history with its changing workforce needs. Her career across GPO, the Office of Personnel Management, Veterans Affairs, Treasury and the Army gives her a broad view of federal people work.

20. Reesha Trznadel, U.S. Department of Energy

Reesha Trznadel is Chief Human Capital Officer for the U.S. Department of Energy. She oversees human capital for more than 13,000 federal employees, including staffing, labour relations, compensation, benefits and performance. Her earlier legal and agency experience shows how deep knowledge of public rules can support practical people leadership.

21. Eddie Ribas, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Eduardo Eddie Ribas is Chief Human Capital Officer for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He brings more than 30 years of federal service to a role that includes workforce strategy, engagement and human-capital operations. His career shows the value of institutional memory when an agency is managing specialist work and long public responsibilities.

22. Tracey Therit, Department of Veterans Affairs

Tracey Therit is Chief Human Capital Officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The human resources function supports a very large workforce and has to connect policy, workforce planning and employee experience to a deeply public mission. The scale makes ownership visible: every people decision can affect the service experienced by veterans and their families.

23. Krysti Wells, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Krysti Wells leads the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The office is responsible for strategic human capital work, data and analytics, and better employee development and professional experience. Her remit shows how public HR can use evidence to connect workforce choices with agency culture, purpose and mission.

24. Doug Tulino, United States Postal Service

Doug Tulino combines the roles of Deputy Postmaster General, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer at the United States Postal Service. That combination puts people leadership close to the operational reality of a national delivery network. It also shows why workforce strategy cannot be separated from service reliability when the organisation reaches every community.

25. Lili Tran, Regional Transportation District Denver

Lili Tran is Chief People Officer for the Regional Transportation District in Denver. She moved into the role after serving as Chief Human Resources Officer for the Colorado Department of Human Services and working on statewide labour negotiations. Public transport makes the link between people and mission especially clear because the quality of the service depends on the capability and support of the workforce.

26. Seandra Buchanan, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority

Seandra Allen Buchanan is Chief Human Resources Officer for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. Her public-sector HR career includes work in local government before moving into regional transit. The role is a reminder that labour relations, workforce planning and employee support are part of keeping a public network moving.

What these leaders show

Across these roles, the strongest pattern is that public-service HR is a leadership function. The work connects people to mission, turns values into choices and makes ownership visible when the organisation is under pressure.

The second pattern is that context matters. A city, a public university, a utility, a federal agency and a transit authority cannot use the same people plan without adjustment. Good leaders create enough clarity for people to act while keeping the public purpose in view.

The third pattern is that hidden tension needs to be made discussable. Recruitment can pull against compliance. Consistency can pull against local judgment. Speed can pull against fairness.

A useful people leader does not pretend those trade-offs are absent. They help the organisation name them and choose well.

How to use this list

Use the list as a starting map, not as a scorecard. If you are researching a public-service sector, compare the role title, the size of the workforce, the public mandate and the kinds of decisions the leader owns.

If you lead people work yourself, ask which part of the role is most visible in your organisation. Is it hiring, employee relations, labour, development, analytics or culture? Naming that centre of gravity can make priorities easier to explain.

Frequently asked questions

What does a Chief Human Resources Officer do in public service?

A Chief Human Resources Officer leads the people systems that help a public organisation hire, support, develop and retain its workforce. The role often includes employee relations, labour relations, benefits, workforce planning, talent, compliance and organisational development.

Is a Chief Human Capital Officer the same as a Chief Human Resources Officer?

The titles are not identical, but they often cover a closely related role family. Federal agencies commonly use Chief Human Capital Officer, while cities, universities, utilities and transit authorities more often use Chief Human Resources Officer or Chief People Officer.

Why do public-sector HR roles have different titles?

Public organisations have different laws, missions, workforce structures and traditions. The title can change while the core work remains similar: helping the organisation make good people choices in service of the public.

How current is this list?

This article reflects the 2026 public-service HR landscape. Roles can change, so refresh this list before using it as a live directory.

What should I look for in a public-service people leader?

Look for clear ownership, a practical understanding of the organisation's mission and the ability to hold competing needs in view. The clearest evidence is usually found in the work the leader owns, not in the title alone.

Conclusion

The people function is where public purpose becomes daily work. These 26 leaders show the range of that work across the United States, from city halls and utilities to universities, federal agencies and transit networks.

The lesson is simple. Good public-service people leadership gives an organisation a clearer way to choose, act and serve.

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Author

Jonno White helps leaders build organisations people would move cities to work at. His work is practical rather than motivational, with ideas people can use on Monday morning.