Katia Albanese

Katia Albanese serves as the Executive Vice President at Concepts, Inc., and is a strategic communications and government affairs professional with more than 20 years of experience conceptualizing and implementing public education and awareness campaigns with extensive experience in the national workforce development policy arena. In her current role, she is responsible for supporting the management of Concepts Communications, including staff supervision and development. Katia is also responsible for the development, oversight and expansion of client initiatives, which includes strategic planning and project management.

Katia boasts extensive experience in strategic communications and is uniquely skilled at forging effective public/private partnerships to leverage resources and amplify messages around key workforce policy issues at the federal, state and local levels, including career readiness for youth and young adults, work-based learning and apprenticeship options, return-to-work/stay-at-work strategies, emerging technologies, transportation, federal and state government employment, entrepreneurship, procurement and veterans affairs. Katia has also contributed to numerous published resources, including Skilling Up: The Scope of Modern Apprenticeship.

Katia currently leads the Concepts Communications teams in support of U.S. Department of Labor initiatives, including the award-winning and internationally recognized State Exchange on Employment & Disability, as well as state-level initiatives, including projects with Delaware’s Department of Education and Virginia’s Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, and non-profit engagements, including with the Coalition for Career Development Center, 2Gether International, and the Disability Employer Management Coalition (DMEC).

In previous years, managed the Concepts Communications team in support of several collaborative initiatives, including America’s Heroes at Work, DOL-funded public education and anti-stigma campaign that included dozens of federal agency partners with a focus on improving the employment outcomes of returning service members with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as the DOL-U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HIV/AIDS Employment Initiative, and the DOL-U.S. Department of Transportations’ Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative. She also led DOL’s Accessible Technology in the Workplace initiative, and two Web development projects for DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Past responsibilities have also included the management of outreach campaigns on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Community Transportation Association of America.

Prior to joining Concepts Communications, Katia was the vice president of marketing and business development for CMSCO Associates, a Washington, D.C., government affairs consulting firm.  Katia graduated from American University with a bachelor of science in business administration with a concentration in finance. She is a member of the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC).