Tina Pruett may have stumbled into public service, but she has since found her footing.
“Honestly, I fell into local government,” says Pruett, human resources manager with the City of Pleasanton, Calif.
In 2008, Pruett was laid off from a private-sector job and joined the Hayward Unified School District in Alameda County, Calif., as a human resources analyst. She credits “an incredible HR director” with taking a chance on someone transitioning from nearly a decade in the private sector .
“I learned more in a short period of time than I ever had in the private sector, and I quickly realized there was something special about public sector HR,” says Pruett, who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from San Francisco State University. She also earned a master’s degree in public administration, with an emphasis in human resources and change management, from California State University, East Bay.
“That was more than 18 years ago, and I have never looked back.”
After nearly three years in Hayward, Pruett took on progressively responsible roles with the City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Contra Costa County and the City of Oakland before joining Pleasanton in 2025.
At both Contra Costa County and Oakland, Pruett led large HR divisions with 20-plus staff, gaining experience managing complex operations. At Contra Costa County, she modernized and streamlined HR processes and established the County’s first countywide organizational development and training function. At Oakland, she deepened her expertise in analytics and process improvement.
Her move to Pleasanton represented a different kind of career growth, broadening her expertise across the full spectrum of HR.
“Learning and growth isn’t always about a vertical promotion,” Pruett says. “Moving to a smaller organization has given me the opportunity to develop a much broader expertise and to see the impact of HR work across an entire organization.”
Pruett’s first HR director once told her that working in human resources was “like practicing law without a license.”
As a child, Pruett wanted to grow up to become a lawyer. “But as I got older, I realized I didn’t actually want to be an attorney,” she says. “Public sector HR turned out to be the perfect third way. I get to work through complex legal and organizational issues, advocate for both employees and the organization, solve problems and hopefully make government a little better along the way.”
PSHRA has been an important part of Pruett’s professional journey. Her introduction to the organization came through her local chapter, which offered an in-person training program to prepare for the PSHRA certification exam.
“The instructors were fantastic, the training was valuable and, perhaps most importantly, I connected with so many people who became part of my professional network,” she says.
Pruett earned her PSHRA-SCP certification in 2016 and joined the national organization in 2017. For her, “the magic of PSHRA” starts at the chapter level, where professional connections become a lasting source of support.
Pruett has served on the board of the San Francisco Bay Area PSHRA chapter since January 2023, and took office as chapter president in July 2026.
“PSHRA has become much more than a professional association to me. It has become a community of colleagues, mentors, friends and people I can call when I encounter a problem that doesn’t have an easy answer.”
Today, giving back is part of her professional journey.
“Someone took a chance on me early in my career. Other leaders and colleagues have continued to invest in me along the way,” says Pruett. “Being involved in PSHRA gives me the opportunity to do the same for the next generation of public sector HR professionals.”
12 October 2026
Category
Stories of Impact
