Demetrius Parker: A Lifelong Sense of Service

In 2013, Demetrius Parker had spent a decade as an HR professional in the private sector.

“I had built a strong career, but I increasingly felt that something was missing,” says Parker, who is now the founder and pragmatical solutions leader of Trust Leadership Collective.

“For me, that missing piece was service.”

As a military veteran, service “has always been a strong calling,” says Parker, who served in the U.S. Army as a presidential escort and combat communications leader.

That sense of duty goes back to Parker’s childhood in Washington, D.C., when he says he knew he wanted to contribute “in some way to making the world better.”

Moving into public sector HR gave him a chance to connect his professional experience with his sense of deeper purpose.

His introduction to the public sector came 13 years ago, when Parker was working as an HR representative with Cisco Systems. He had already served in HR and recruitment roles as a consultant, and had worked as an HR manager with BroadHop Inc., a Denver-based technology company that was later acquired by Cisco. And it was time for a change of scenery.

In that role, Parker performed a number of tasks that were critical to the County’s recruitment and retention strategy, including building partnerships with internal leadership and the external community to attract talent for County roles. The phrase “more than a paycheck” inspired Parker to become a public servant, and he used those exact words to recruit others.

In August 2021, Parker moved on to the City and County of Broomfield, Colo., taking a position as training and organizational development program manager. There, he partnered with leaders and staff to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive value system as part of an effort to nurture an engaged and productive workforce.

In these roles, “I quickly came to appreciate that public sector HR is about much more than policies, compliance or internal processes,” says Parker, whose background also includes more than 25 years of experience as an actor, director, singer and songwriter.

“The work directly influences the people who serve our communities and, ultimately, the quality of those workplaces can affect the quality of public service itself. That connection between people, leadership, workplace culture and community impact is what made public sector HR feel like the right place for me.”

PSHRA has been part of Parker’s public sector experience since his early days with Jefferson County. He became a member in September 2013, when his then-manager, Jennifer Fairweather introduced him to the organization.

“Jennifer has since become a friend, peer and mentor,” he says of Fairweather, who has served as Jefferson County’s CHRO since 2010. She was also PSHRA’s national president in 2023, and received the organization’s honorary lifetime membership award the following year.

“I initially joined because I wanted to better understand the public-sector HR profession and connect with others who were doing similar work,” says Parker. “Coming from the private sector, I knew I had strong HR experience, but I also recognized that public service had its own complexities, responsibilities, and opportunities.”

In the years since, “PSHRA has supported my development in ways I could not have anticipated when I first joined,” adds Parker, who has served as secretary, vice president and president of PSHRA’s Colorado chapter. He has also become involved at the Western Region level, as second vice president and first vice president before serving as regional president.

“These roles certainly helped strengthen my leadership skills, but PSHRA’s greatest impact has been the relationships, exposure and opportunities that came with them,” says Parker, who is also a founding member of the organization’s West Committee.

“The organization connected me with mentors, colleagues, friends and public-sector professionals from across the country. It gave me opportunities to lead, speak, contribute, learn and broaden how I understood both HR and public service.”

PSHRA has helped Parker go from someone working in public sector HR “to someone who felt deeply connected to the profession and its broader community.

“Looking back, Jennifer Fairweather’s introduction to PSHRA truly changed my life. It opened doors I did not know existed and created opportunities that continue to shape my work today.”