Mark Van Bruggen: When the Public Sector is a Calling

Mark Van Bruggen’s public sector resume includes just one entry. But that one entry spans four decades as a mainstay in New Jersey state government.

Van Bruggen retired in December 2025, after spending nearly 38 years with the New Jersey Civil Service Commission (NJCSC).

“Like a lot of my friends and colleagues, public sector HR found me. In college, I had attempted to major in civil engineering, but college—and engineering calculus in particular—determined another path for me,” says Van Bruggen.

Instead, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Delaware in 1986, and then immediately enrolled in the school’s new College of Public Policy, where he would later receive a master’s degree in public administration.

“As I poured myself into my graduate studies, with a concentration in HR management, I realized the public sector could not match the salaries offered by private sector employers, but I also discovered the importance of public service and was attracted by that higher calling.”

NJCSC brought Van Bruggen on board in June 1988, as a Governor’s Fellow.

“The New Jersey governor’s fellowship was a state program designed to attract and recruit New Jersey residents with graduate degrees,” he explains. “There were approximately 20 Governor’s Fellows in my class, and I was claimed by the New Jersey Department of Personnel, today known as the New Jersey Civil Service Commission.”

The fellowship, Van Bruggen says, put him and his classmates on the fast track to an entry-level management title with permanent career-service status.

At the time, though, he didn’t see himself spending more than two or three years working for the state.

“But three years turned into five years, five years turned into 10 years and … well, I think you get the picture.”

As time went on, Van Bruggen found himself developing expertise in New Jersey civil service rules, statutes and processes, as well as becoming a supervisor and mentor to others.

“The greatest joy of my career was being able to train employees and watch them grow in their careers.”

Van Bruggen has also been an integral part of PSHRA since becoming a member in 1996. He went on to help resurrect the Association’s New Jersey chapter, become a member of PSHRA’s Executive Council, and serve as PSHRA President in 2024. Not that he could have foreseen any of that when he first discovered the organization.

“I did not know anything about PSHRA when, in 1996, I was recruited to help the PSHRA East Committee (then called the Eastern Region) host a training and development conference in Princeton, N.J.,” Van Bruggen recalls.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, there had been a New Jersey chapter, but it had gone defunct and lost its charter. The PSHRA East Committee was looking to revive a chapter in New Jersey, and [the committee] believed that a professional conference would do the trick.”

And it did.

“Soon, about a dozen of my colleagues and I were recruited to be founding members of the new chapter.”

As part of this newly formed group, Van Bruggen honed his leadership abilities as a chapter officer and, eventually, chapter president. That experience helped prepare him for his future role as PSHRA president, he says, noting three PSHRA members—Angelika Muehleisen, Ron Clare and Dick Heil—as crucial mentors during his early days with PSHRA.

Getting involved with his state’s chapter as a new member also helped him make meaningful connections that have lasted throughout his 30 years with PSHRA.

“There, I found a home for networking, professional development and friendship.”