About
Deb Marshall
Founder, Three Circles HR
Providing practical HR advice to business leaders and HR professionals has been my passion for over 45 years. This is especially true when I’m facilitating HR peer groups (“Circles”) to connect them with each other, to collaborate and learn from their on-going relationships, and then to catalyze that knowledge and tailor it to their own organization’s particular needs. It is both a gratifying and humbling experience to see people return to these groups year after year!
With over 30 years of experience in consulting with a wide variety of clients in both for-profit and nonprofit industries, I often think I’ve seen it all in the “people” business. And then someone tells a story about a new situation, and we all marvel and say “you just can’t make this stuff up.” The practical guardrails we need to deal with in HR are all there for a reason (policies, procedures, laws, regulations) and give us the framework within which resolve people issues creatively and with dignity.
With expertise in most areas of HR management, I’m a true generalist in terms of education, training, and experience. The skills I learned years ago while being an instructor for Crucial Conversations© and Crucial Accountability™ classes gave me a strong foundation for thoughtfully addressing difficult "people" issues.
About me: I have started up two successful HR consulting practices in accounting firms, in Wisconsin (from scratch) and in Iowa (in a new market). In addition to consulting, I have many years of hands-on leadership and executive HR experience in heavy manufacturing, in publishing and seminar development, and as district manager for a large retail chain. I received my BBA from the University of Iowa. Though now retired from project consulting and professional association life, I was quite active in the Eau Claire Chamber of Commerce (facilitated the annual wage survey for 25 years) and the Society for Human Resource Management at the local, state, and national levels for many years. Although originally from Orlando, Florida, I am Midwesterner by choice since 1976. And I LOVE to travel! Got my last two continents - Antarctica in 2023 and Africa in 2024!