HR Consultants in Washington DC to Watch for in 2025

Washington DC & DMV HR Experts to Know in 2025

Washington, D.C. has always been a city powered by people—from policy makers and nonprofit leaders to startup founders and educators. But behind those teams? You’ll often find a strategic HR consultant making the people side of the business work.

The D.C.–Arlington–Alexandria corridor is home to a growing ecosystem of HR professionals who aren’t just keeping the lights on—they’re helping organizations scale, rebuild, hire smarter, and lead better. These are the trusted operators, strategic coaches, compliance architects, and DEI champions guiding teams through change and complexity.

This list celebrates the region’s most impactful HR consultants—people who’ve built businesses, influenced policy, launched leadership pipelines, and made people-first strategy a reality for companies of all shapes and sizes.

How We Built This List

At Digital Reference, we take pride in highlighting the professionals doing the real work of organizational transformation. Our process includes:

• 🧭 Deep analysis of D.C.’s HR ecosystem—nonprofits, policy groups, startups, and global orgs
  
  
• 💬 In-depth review of work history, public thought leadership, client impact, and values
  
  
• 🔍 A focus on practitioners whose approach aligns with inclusive, strategic, and modern people ops
  
  

Want to explore how we define HR impact? Check out:
👉 HR Consultants in the USA to Watch
👉 What Do HR Consultants Really Do?

Featured DMV HR Consultants & People Specialists

Lori Shearin

Senior HR Consultant, Smart HR
LinkedIn | Website

Lori Shearin has spent her career helping organizations solve HR problems before they become crises. At Smart HR, she delivers strategic and practical HR solutions for businesses that don’t have in-house teams—but still need expert support.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📋 Policy and handbook development
  
  
• 💡 HR assessments and compliance strategies
  
  
• 👥 Manager training and employee relations
  
  
• 🧘 Support during high-stress org changes
  
  

Her clients appreciate her steadiness, responsiveness, and real-world recommendations that can be implemented now.

Maureen Menjivar

Co-Founder, The Verity Group
LinkedIn | Website

Maureen Menjivar brings more than 20 years of federal HR and consulting experience to her work with The Verity Group. She co-founded the firm to offer organizations results-oriented, integrity-driven HR strategy, especially for agencies and public contractors.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🏛️ Federal HR compliance and systems design
  
  
• 📈 Talent acquisition process mapping
  
  
• 📚 Coaching and mentorship for in-house HR staff
  
  
• ⚖️ Equitable classification and pay structure support
  
  

Her clients span government, education, and public-private partnerships—and they trust Maureen for quiet strength and relentless follow-through.

Krysta James

Co-Founder, The Verity Group
LinkedIn | Website

Krysta James is a strategic people leader who blends workforce analytics, change management, and HR systems design. As co-founder of The Verity Group, she’s helped clients navigate everything from DEI implementation to large-scale people audits.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📊 Workforce planning and org modeling
  
  
• 🧠 Behavioral-based performance system creation
  
  
• 🌱 DEI and inclusive leadership development
  
  
• 🛠️ HRIS implementation and optimization
  
  

Krysta’s work is data-driven but human-first, helping leaders make smarter people decisions with real insights.

Leatrice Buck

HR Consultant and DEI Strategist
LinkedIn

With over 25 years of experience in HR strategy, Leatrice Buck is a go-to advisor for organizations navigating compliance, DEI transformation, and culture change. Known for her ability to infuse equity into policy and process, Leatrice works across industries to ensure HR doesn’t just meet legal standards—but truly reflects people-first values.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📋 DEI audits and implementation planning
  
  
• 📈 Coaching HR teams through cultural transformation
  
  
• 💬 BIPOC hiring and retention strategies
  
  
• 🧭 Community-rooted HR practices with measurable impact
  
  

Her approach blends strategic clarity with emotional intelligence, making her a trusted partner for HR departments and leadership teams alike.

Kimberly Prescott

Founder, Prescott HR
LinkedIn | Website

Kimberly Prescott founded Prescott HR to provide executive-level HR expertise to organizations that needed more than a one-size-fits-all solution. Her background includes corporate HR leadership and law firm management, giving her a unique understanding of both compliance and people systems.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🧾 Full-service HR compliance audits
  
  
• 🧠 Interim and fractional CHRO support
  
  
• 📈 Onboarding and leadership development for scaling teams
  
  
• 💼 Employer brand and retention consulting
  
  

Kimberly is also a regular speaker and educator in the D.C. business community, where she helps HR leaders sharpen their operational and strategic toolkits.

Rosa Salas

Principal, Helios HR
LinkedIn | Website

Rosa Salas brings a powerful mix of academic rigor, policy fluency, and workplace empathy to her work at Helios HR. She leads with data-informed strategy and operational depth, helping clients solve complex people problems—from workforce planning to HR tech transformation.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🧬 Data-driven people strategy
  
  
• 💼 Federal contractor HR compliance
  
  
• 🧩 DEI implementation in highly regulated industries
  
  
• 🧠 Culture transformation aligned with strategic vision
  
  

Rosa is especially valued in government-adjacent industries, where complexity and accountability demand more than just HR basics.

Kristina Griffin

Founder, Pinnacle HR Consulting
LinkedIn | Website

With over 20 years in the HR field, Kristina Griffin launched Pinnacle HR Consulting to help small- and mid-sized organizations get executive-level HR support without the overhead. Her firm focuses on compliance, talent strategy, and people-first system design.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🛠️ Building HR departments from the ground up
  
  
• 📈 Retention strategy and performance frameworks
  
  
• 🧠 Coaching for emerging people leaders
  
  
• ⚖️ Navigating legal risks and policy design
  
  

Kristina is especially known for being both a strategist and a doer—able to guide vision and build tools at the same time.

Jeff Green

Co-Founder, Xpanse HR
Website

Jeff Green is a startup-savvy HR consultant who co-founded Xpanse HR to deliver scalable people operations to companies growing fast. With a tech and startup-heavy client base, Jeff specializes in building HR systems that are modern, digital, and growth-ready.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🌱 HR infrastructure for Series A to C startups
  
  
• 💼 HR tech platform implementation and migration
  
  
• 🧠 Compensation design and total rewards
  
  
• 🤝 Talent lifecycle mapping with leadership enablement
  
  

Whether it’s helping founders navigate their first hire or optimizing a team of 50+, Jeff delivers with precision and vision.

Shelly Azen

Founder, UNHR
LinkedIn | Website

Shelly Azen is a former in-house HR executive turned consultant with a passion for organizational healing and executive coaching. At UNHR, she delivers strategic people solutions to mission-driven organizations and associations navigating transitions, restructures, or values misalignment.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 💬 Executive coaching with an equity-first lens
  
  
• 📚 Facilitation of team alignment and values realignment
  
  
• ⚖️ HR compliance strategy for nonprofits
  
  
• 🧭 Conflict resolution and leadership development
  
  

Shelly is known for her ability to bring both depth and peace to organizations under pressure—especially those in education, social impact, and policy spheres.

Amy Barker

Founder, Barker HR
LinkedIn | Website

Amy Barker leads Barker HR, a consultancy known for calmly untangling HR chaos. With a background in arts and culture institutions and small businesses, she brings deep empathy to the table while ensuring organizations are legally protected and people-aligned.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 📋 Custom HR audits and policies
  
  
• 🛠️ HR infrastructure for creative and founder-led teams
  
  
• 💡 Coaching and change management
  
  
• ⚖️ Federal, state, and local compliance navigation
  
  

Amy’s superpower? Making HR accessible and unintimidating—even for leaders who’ve avoided it.

Bryan Jackson

Managing Director, Nonprofit HR
LinkedIn | Website

Bryan Jackson is a leading voice in nonprofit HR strategy, helping organizations scale their missions while protecting their people. At Nonprofit HR, he advises foundations, advocacy groups, and social enterprises on leadership development, DEI, and talent alignment.

💠 Signature Strengths:

• 🌍 Nonprofit talent and leadership strategy
  
  
• ✊ Social justice–aligned people systems
  
  
• 📈 Workforce planning and performance design
  
  
• 🤝 Founder/ED transition support
  
  

Bryan brings heart, policy fluency, and team-building acumen to every engagement.

HR in D.C.: Grounded, Global, and People-First

The D.C. region is unique—it’s where public meets private, where policy meets practice, and where organizations are often held to a higher standard. These consultants are helping teams live up to that standard—not just in compliance, but in culture, clarity, and care.

Whether you’re running a national nonprofit in Alexandria, a federal contractor in Arlington, or a fast-growing org in D.C. proper, there’s someone in this lineup who can help you build smarter and lead better.

A Note from Digital Reference

At Digital Reference, our job is to surface the operators who keep great teams moving. We believe that HR isn’t a support function—it’s the engine behind your company’s culture, alignment, and long-term growth.

We research. We map ecosystems. And we create clarity in a space that’s often noisy and opaque.

We exist to highlight:

• 👥 The builders behind people strategy
  
  
• 🧭 The coaches driving executive clarity
  
  
• 📈 The operators scaling HR without breaking teams
  
  

Want to learn more about our work?
👉 About Digital Reference
👉 What Are Human Resource Professionals?

We’ll be updating this D.C. list regularly—if you know a standout HR consultant in the region, send them our way.
And if you’re one of the quiet leaders doing this work every day?

You’re already in the right place.

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