Russell Peal

Director, Workforce Recruitment and Retention Veterans Health Administration

Russ Peal serves as the Director of Workforce Recruitment & Retention for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). In his role, Russ provides strategic direction and administrative oversight for the agency’s national efforts to recruit, retain, and develop talent pipelines for it most critical clinical and healthcare support occupations. Russ is credited with establishing VHA’s first in-house specialized healthcare recruitment operation and successfully leading the largest specialty recruitment and hiring initiative in the agency’s history. He leads departments focused on specialized physician/advanced practice provider recruitment, education loan repayment, scholarships and clinical education, health professions trainee placement, national recruitment marketing and advertising, provider contract-buyout, national sourcing for health professionals, and workforce engagement & retention. He has over 30 years of direct experience in physician and executive recruitment, in both public and private sectors, and has earned a national reputation for leading high performing, award-winning remote teams. Russ is a certified with the Association for the Advancement of Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) and the American Academy of Medical Management (AAMM), respectively. He is an Excellence in Government (EIG) Fellow with the Partnership for Public Service and a Health Care Executive Leadership Fellow with the Interagency Institute for Federal Health Care Executives.