Jane Oates

Jane Oates is President of WorkingNation and a former U.S. Department of Labor official who has played a key role in WorkingNation’s mission to raise awareness about the challenges facing the American workforce. She served as Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration under Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, after being nominated for the position by President Barack Obama in 2009. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Oates was Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and a senior advisor to Governor Jon S. Corzine. She also served for nearly a decade as senior policy advisor for Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. She began her career as a teacher in the Boston and Philadelphia public schools and later as a field researcher at Temple University’s Center for Research in Human Development and Education. She received her B.A. in education from Boston College and her M.Ed. in reading from Arcadia University.