Barbara Hinkle is a human resources and organizational development professional with over 30 years of experience. She collaborates with employers to strengthen business capacity, minimize risk, and empower managers and leaders to perform at their highest potential. Her areas of expertise include compliance, recruitment, organizational design, leadership development, employee relations, conflict resolution, compensation, and training. Barbara has worked both in-house as an HR leader, and as an outsideconsultant across for-profit and non-profit sectors.

From 2016 to mid-2025, Barbara served as the Physician HR Leader for The Permanente Medical Group in Santa Rosa, CA, where she led the human resources team, providing HR support for 400 physicians. Prior to that, she spent 11 years as Vice President of Human Resources at Earthjustice, a national non-profit environmental law firm. Between holding in-house leadership positions, she ran her own HR consulting practice for a decade, partnering with CEOs and business owners of small to mid-sized organizations on HR strategy and implementation.
 
Barbara holds a BS in Organizational Behavior and an MA in Management. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and she earned a certificate in Change Leadership from Cornell University. She has also taught HR and training courses as Adjunct Faculty at Dominican University in Marin County, CA, and is a Certified Professional Coach.

In July 2025, Barbara transitioned from her role at Kaiser Permanente to resume HR consulting and coaching under her new venture, Portal Consulting LLC.