The Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council has a new face taking the lead to collaborate on human capital initiatives and strategies across government.

Colleen Heller-Stein, formerly deputy CHCO at the Treasury Department, has stepped in as executive director of the CHCO Council, Federal News Network has learned. The senior-level position within the Office of Personnel Management leads agency CHCOs and other human capital leaders to innovate on best practices for managing the recruitment and retention of the federal workforce.

Heller-Stein is the first career federal executive to serve in the CHCO Council leadership role. She took over the position a few weeks ago from Latonia Page, who had been working as acting executive director of the CHCO Council since September 2023. Prior to Page’s time on the job, Margot Conrad — currently deputy chief of staff at OPM — served as the council’s executive director for about two and a half years.

Before taking on the role of leading the CHCO Council, Heller-Stein worked for 14 years at the Treasury Department. In addition to her experience as Treasury’s deputy CHCO, she previously served as the agency’s director of HR, as well as taking on a one-and-a-half-year stint as acting Treasury CHCO. Before moving to Treasury, Heller-Stein held various other roles in state and federal government, including working at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Government Publishing Office and Department of Veterans Affairs.

“As the former deputy CHCO and acting CHCO of a large, cabinet-level agency, I recognize the important role of the council as a collaborative resource and connective tissue for the largest and most complex workforce in the country,” Heller-Stein said in a statement to Federal News Network. “I look forward to working alongside human capital leaders across the federal government to support and strengthen the federal workforce.”

The CHCO Council, composed of federal human capital leaders from many major agencies, has been around now for more than 21 years. The council routinely convenes the senior leaders across government to discuss trends and strategies for improving the federal workforce through recruitment, retention and more. In May 2023, the council celebrated its 20th anniversary during a ceremony at OPM headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In recent years, the CHCO Council has focused on replicating and scaling up promising practices in agency recruitment and retention, including pooled hiring, shared certificates, skills-based recruitment and reducing time-to-hire for prospective job candidates.

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