Alisa Gordon likes to say that HR is in her blood.
“Both my parents were in human resources, and both worked in the public sector,” says Gordon, human resources manager with Union Sanitary District in Union City, Calif.
Gordon’s mother was a human resources director for a water and wastewater special district, while her father worked as a training manager for a federal agency. Growing up with parents in the HR profession was a unique experience.
“While other kids got grounded, for instance, I was given performance improvement plans,” she says now.
While Gordon is (maybe) joking about being the only kid on the block with a PIP, she is serious when she discusses how seeing her parents’ commitment to public service affected her.
“I also got to see the side [of their work] where they were so ingrained in the community, from riding on a Vactor truck at holiday parades to showing up for volunteer opportunities at work, giving back to the public they served was so important, and a true core value that my parents modeled every day.”
Gordon took note of how hard her parents worked, but she also saw the rewards and sense of fulfillment that came with that hard work. Still, HR wasn’t her first career choice when she went away to college.
Indeed, Gordon earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of the Pacific in 2013. But taking an introduction to human resources management class during her senior year—with the encouragement of mom and dad, of course—proved to be a career-changing decision.
“I loved it so much,” she says. “I joined the HR club on campus and, the day after I graduated, I started as an HR intern for a local municipality.”
Gordon served as an administrative intern with the City of Hayward, Calif. for four months after graduation, assisting the City’s HR team with a number of tasks, including recruitment, job reclassification and salary comparison, workers’ compensation analysis and employee recognition.
She went on to serve as a human resources technician with the City until November 2015, when she took a role as an HR specialist with the City of Walnut Creek. She worked in that position for nearly two years before becoming an HR analyst II with the City. She served in that capacity until July 2022, when she accepted her current role with Union Sanitary District.
“Now, going into my 13th year of service, it is amazing to be able to share the ups and downs of the career (and get free consultation!) from my parents, who have supported me along the way,” says Gordon, who also earned a master of public administration in administration and policy analysis from California State University in 2019.
“Supporting the communities I have served by helping to strengthen and empower employees and organizations is such a passion, and I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.”
A PSHRA member since January 2023, Gordon is also grateful for the sense of community among her peers within the association’s membership.
“PSHRA is a great network above all else—the daily forums, training opportunities and connection have come in handy so many times,” she says, adding that PSHRA’s certifications are “the gold standard for certification in the public sector world of HR.”
Gordon, who hopes to earn her PSHRA-SCP certification in 2027, is also eager to continue growing and developing her skills to become an HR director or possibly an assistant general manager or city manager. And she plans to make PSHRA a part of her professional journey the rest of the way.
“PSHRA keeps me in the know with current trends, things that are impacting others within the field,” says Gordon, “and with how to continue to balance the transactional with the transformational.”
02 November 2026
Category
Stories of Impact
