Government agencies across the country struggle with outdated hiring systems that slow down recruitment and create barriers for qualified candidates.

Lengthy processes and outdated requirements often prevent agencies from attracting the diverse, skilled talent needed to deliver for communities.In this workshop, Work for America will share how the cities of St. Louis and San Francisco reimagined their hiring practices with people—not paperwork—at the center.

Participants will learn how these governments streamlined recruitment, reduced time-to-hire, and improved the candidate experience while still maintaining fairness, transparency, and compliance.

SHIFRA GOLDENBERG
Chief Program Officer, Work for America
shifra@workforamerica.org

Shifra Goldenberg is the Chief Program Officer of Work for America, a nonpartisan nonprofit making public service a more desirable, accessible, and stable career path. She has over a decade of leadership experience in public policy and programs with New York City, including serving as Senior Policy Advisor in the Mayor’s Office of Operations and Director at NYC Health + Hospitals. Shifra led major initiatives across health care, benefits access, homelessness, civic engagement, and education. Notably, she launched New York City’s 24/7 COVID-19 vaccination sites—including the City’s largest at Citi Field—and directed the Street Health Outreach and Wellness (SHOW) program, a finalist for Fast Company’s World-Changing Ideas in Health Care. She holds an MPA from NYU and a BA from Columbia.

KRIZIA LOPEZ
Vice President, Government Innovation, Work for America
krizia@workforamerica.org

Krizia Rosario Lopez is the Vice President of Government Innovation at Work for America and has 10+ years of experience leading systemic transformation in the public and private sector. She is passionate about helping build efficient, effective, and lasting public value.

She most recently led People and Process Innovation for the City of St. Louis as a Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow in the Mayor’s Office. There, she led the multi-million dollar modernization effort of the hiring process from paper to the first digital HR system in Oracle, shaped the city’s first classification and compensation study in 25 years, and developed St. Louis' overall regional workforce development strategy.

Krizia built her early career at Google for six years in international roles in Marketing, Strategy and Operations, and Skills Training. She earned her Master in Public Administration from Harvard '23, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Kennedy School Review, developed strategy for the Department of Labor, and taught negotiation. Previously, she also led operations at a public school in NYC and founded a workforce development program for low-income youth. Krizia graduated with a BA from Columbia University and was a Fulbright Research Scholar in Nicaragua. She speaks German, Spanish, and Chinese and comes from a multicultural family.

DAVID HUEBNER
Chief People Officer, County of Santa Clara, CA
david.huebner@esa.sccgov.org

David W. Huebner leads the people function at the County of Santa Clara where he supports a workforce of over 24,000 employees serving almost 2 million constituents. David has spent the past decade bringing data-driven, human-centered approaches to mission-driven organizations to help drive meaningful change. As part of this work, David led the HR Modernization Program at the City and County of San Francisco advancing the Mayor’s government efficiency agenda and hiring modernization initiatives.

Prior to his work in the public sector, David served as the Director of Code for America’s Talent Initiative, and as a program manager at Google, leading a strategy, analytics, and effectiveness team focused on hiring and employee services.