Yvette Chocolaad
Policy Director
National Association of State Workforce Agencies
Washington, DC
Yvette is Policy Director at the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA), helping state workforce agency leaders address labor market issues arising from a changing economy, such as unemployment and the need for skilled labor. She is a member of the leadership team and also helps direct two NASWA Committees. She is the staff director of the NASWA Labor Market Information Committee, which provides a forum for labor market information directors to discuss a range of workforce information practices, including labor market information as an asset for workforce development, performance accountability, and research and evaluation. She is also staff director of the NASWA Employment and Training Committee. Members of each of the committees meet several times annually to share promising practices, conduct research and projects, develop relationships with federal, state and other partners, and consider policy or regulatory changes that might improve the workforce development system.
Yvette also conducts research and leads projects. Most recently, she co-authored the 2017 report Evidence-Building Capacity in State Workforce Agencies: Insights from a National Scan and Two State Site Visits. She also co-authored a chapter on UI claimant reemployment policies for the 2015 Federal Reserve book Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century. Among other efforts, she helped direct and author a Department of Labor study on the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and has developed surveys and reports on the state use of Wagner-Peyser Act funds and on the adjustments made by state workforce agencies to declining federal funding.
Prior to NASWA, she was on the professional staff of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, where she was the assistant to the Chief Economist and then professional staffer for the Subcommittee on Human Resources, covering cash welfare, child welfare, unemployment insurance, and social services policy. In both roles, she helped edit and author the Committee’s Green Book, which provides background information and analysis on the major federal entitlement programs. Ms. Chocolaad has worked at consulting firms and for executive branch agencies. She studied economics and public policy at Duke University, and has an M.P.P. from Harvard’s Kennedy School. She is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.