PSHRA's Public Eye Podcast

Catherine Burns, chief of human resources with the Baltimore City Department of General Services (DGS), recently joined the Public Eye podcast to walk us through how DGS revamped its recruitment practices to reduce vacancies and shorten time to hire for hard-to-fill trade roles in a competitive labor market. 

Pamela Pine, PhD, founder and director of Stop the Silence® (a Department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma), recently joined the Public Eye podcast to discuss the concept of trauma-informed HR - what it means, its hidden impact on the workforce and the steps that public sector HR leaders can take to make trauma-informed HR the new standard in the public sector. 

 Jodi Outland , director of human resources with the Town of Cape Charles, Va. , recently joined the Public Eye podcast to chat about the Town’s Wellness & Health Incentive Program, or WHIP. The Town developed the program in 2023, to encourage employees to be vigilant about preventative care and to adopt a healthy lifestyle, offering workers a financial reward in the form of contributions to t...

 Anni Evans, director of human resources with the Town of Bluffton, S.C., recently joined the Public Eye podcast to give us an overview of the Town’s intern exit surveys – which she says have become a standard part of the Town’s intern lifecycle.   Anni discussed the role of the Town’s HR team in creating the survey, the questions the survey includes and why, and how the feedback the Town receives...

Shifra Goldenberg, chief program officer with Work for America, recently joined the Public Eye podcast to talk about WFA’s upcoming Transforming City Hiring Processes workshop.    The free, virtual workshop is part of Work for America’s Talent Accelerator Program, and runs from April 21 through June 9. In our recent chat, Shifra told us about the Talent Accelerator Program’s origins, what this upc...

Wally Bobkiewicz is the city administrator with the City of Issaquah, Wash. He is also spearheading Local Gov 250, a national effort to honor and elevate the role of local government as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026.    Wally recently joined the Public Eye podcast to talk a bit about this initiative—which PSHRA is proud to be a partner on, along with a number of other...

Amanda Hecker is a retired teacher who has provided diversity training and education since leaving the classroom in 2024. Amanda is also a transgender woman, one of roughly 2.8 million individuals in the U.S. who identify as transgender, according to a 2025 estimate from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.   Amanda recently joined the podcast to discuss the topic of gender transition...

Kelli Bentley, human resources director with Anniston Water Works & Sewer Board, in Anniston, Ala., recently joined the Public Eye podcast to offer an overview of the organization’s Cultivating Leadership, Excellence and Resources (C.L.E.A.R.) initiative, a three-session program designed to prepare the agency’s employees for career advancement in more senior roles.

The Public Eye podcast’s newest episode features Melissa Barker, vice president of practice development, with special expertise in recruiting, government and public sector organizations, at Duffy Group, a global recruitment firm based in Phoenix, Ariz.    Melissa recently sat down with us to talk about “turnover at the top.” Our chat touched on what’s driving turnover at the senior levels of publi...

Jeanette Hamilton, director of human resources at North Valley Hospital, Okanogan County Public Hospital District #4, recently joined the Public Eye podcast for our first-ever episode with a live audience!  Jeanette sat down with us on Sept. 30 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown, site of PSHRA's 2025 national conference, to share her thoughts on the event, and talk about how she and her "scrappy" HR...

Pete Blank, training and organizational development manager with the Personnel Board of Jefferson County in Birmingham, Ala., recently joined the Public Eye podcast to give us a preview of his upcoming presentation at PSHRA25, to be held Sept. 29 - Oct. 1 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown.    At the conference, Pete will discuss the J.O.B.S. Model of Employee Engagement, exploring the four key driv...

The passage of OBBA, signed into law on July 4, figures to reverberate throughout the public sector for years to come. The nearly $4 trillion economic and tax package includes major cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs, and investments in immigration enforcement and national defense. Now, state and local governments are working to implement the bill and its changes.    Jason Briefel, partner...

Each year since 2009, PSHRA® has partnered with MissionSquare Research Institute and the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE) to conduct an annual survey focusing on the recruitment, retention, compensation, organizational culture and other top priorities for public sector HR leaders.    Gerald Young, senior researcher at MissionSquare, recently joined the Public Eye podcast...

Anthony Fasano, human resources manager with the Village of Alsip, Ill., recently joined the Public Eye podcast to chat about the Village of Alsip’s recent experience with implementing a new human resource information system, or HRIS.  Anthony told us a bit about the implementation process, what led the Village of Alsip to adopt a new HRIS, how they overcame hurdles along the way, and what sort of...

Any public sector HR leader knows that the competition for top talent is fierce, and public sector employers need any edge they can get. That said, some contend that the government hiring process is antiquated, or that it takes too long to fill vacancies. And that can lead some very qualified and talented candidates to drop out and start looking somewhere else for their next opportunity.   Melissa...

Earlier this year, PSHRA® conducted a survey of more than 400 public sector HR professionals, in an effort to identify patterns and trends with regard to public sector organizations’ focus on employee well-being. Overall, our findings suggest that public sector employers are still very much focusing on employee mental health, but many workers—including those in HR—are still experiencing mental wel...

Leeza Garber is a cybersecurity and privacy attorney. She teaches Internet Law, Privacy, and Cybersecurity at The Wharton School, and Information Privacy Law at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Leeza also owns her own executive education company, and consults on best practices for the implementation of AI, cybersecurity and privacy programs.   Leeza recently joined the Public Eye...

Dr. Milton J. Perkins – known to many simply as Dr. P - is the senior vice president with ActOne Government Solutions, which designs and provides workforce solutions for private and public sector entities.    At ActOne, Dr. Perkins spearheads the delivery of people-centric solutions to a diverse range of clients, developing HR consulting content, research and implementation strategies. One of Dr....

Work for America recently introduced Civic Match, a platform designed to help displaced government workers find their next career opportunity at the state and local levels of government. Caitlin Lewis, executive director of Work for America, recently joined us on the Public Eye podcast to provide an overview of the Civic Match initiative, its origins, why it exists and why its so critical at this...

Andrea Cutler is the head of AAC Consulting Services, the HR and risk management consultancy that she has run in the Las Vegas area since retiring after a 30-plus year career in public sector HR.    And, as of Jan. 1, 2025, Andrea is also the current President of PSHRA®’s Executive Council, playing a crucial role in helping lead the Association and fulfill its mission.    Public Eye sat down for a...

Michele Dempster, human resources director and character coordinator with the City of Owasso, Okla., recently joined Public Eye for a chat about the City's increased focus on mental well-being benefits for its 300 employees. In addition to sharing examples of how the mental health resources the City is offering is saving employees' lives, Michele filled us in on some of the mental health-related i...

Anni Evans, director of human resources with the Town of Bluffton in South Carolina, recently wrote an article on the Town’s recently implemented parental leave policy for the September/October edition of PSHRA’s Public Eye , the Association’s bi-monthly digital publication available only to PSHRA members.  On the heels of that article, Anni joined our Public Eye podcast to discuss that policy a b...

Joining us to kick off the second season of the PSHRA® Public Eye podcast is current PSHRA Executive Council President Mark Van Bruggen. Mark is also the HR consultant to the chief of staff at the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, and a great representative of PSHRA.    Mark has spent his entire professional career of more than 35 years working for the NJ CSC. In 1996, he became a member of PSH...

Our guest Chris Starling is the Executive Director of NPower SkillBridge, which helps active duty service members in their last six months in uniform transition into cyber-warriors, giving them the skills to go from defending the nation to defending the network. Chris joins us to discuss how their program works, trends in skills-based hiring, the job market for cyber skills, and the challenges of...

Will Markow is Vice President of Applied Research at Lightcast, a company that connects people with jobs by providing businesses, communities, and education institutions with the best labor market data possible. He joins us to discuss the gap between the demand and supply of cyber workers, the broad implications if this gap is to continue, and how skills-based hiring can narrow the gap and help fi...