John Palguta

John Palguta has extensive experience in public sector human resources management gained within government, the non-profit sector, and academia. A constant throughout his career has been his focus on improving federal HR laws, policies, and practices. John’s career began in 1970 with the U.S. Civil Service Commission (now the U.S. Office of Personnel Management) where he worked in a variety of capacities involving HR operations, policy, and oversight in both field and headquarters positions. In 1980 he joined the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), eventually becoming the Director of its Office of Policy and Evaluation and a career member of the federal Senior Executive Service. As Director, he had overall responsibility for the Board’s statutory mission to conduct governmentwide studies of Federal HR policies, programs, and operations with reports of those studies directed to Congress and the President.
In 2001, John left government to become the Vice President for Policy at the non-profit, non-partisan Partnership for Public Service where he worked closely with numerous federal agencies. His responsibilities included monitoring the constantly changing HR issues and challenges in the federal government and developing proposed solutions and improvements. John retired from the Partnership in 2016. From 2008 to 2018 John also served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
John received a B.A. degree in Sociology from California State University at Northridge and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Southern California. He remains active in a number of professional associations and in 2002 was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He has received a number of honors over the years including MSPB’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award.