Taryn Mackenzie Williams
Taryn Mackenzie Williams is the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy. She advises the Secretary of Labor on how the Department’s policies and programs impact the employment of people with disabilities and leads the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). Previously, Ms. Williams was the managing director for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at American Progress, which works on progressive policies focused on a broad range of anti-poverty strategies. Before that she worked at ODEP on issues related to education, workforce policy, Social Security, Medicaid, and civil rights. As director of youth policy, she led agency efforts to coordinate education and employment policy in support of improved labor force outcomes for youth with disabilities. From 2014 through 2016, she served as ODEP’s chief of staff. She undertook detail assignments as associate director for public engagement and liaison to the disability community at the White House from 2014 to 2015 and as a policy adviser on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 2012 to 2013. Before the federal government, Ms. Williams worked as research coordinator for leadership programs at the Institute for Educational Leadership and as the director of programs at the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues.
