Katia Albanese is a strategic communications and government affairs professional with more than 25 years of experience leading national initiatives, stakeholder engagement strategies, and cross-sector partnerships that advance federal and state policy priorities. Following a long tenure with Concepts Communications, most recently as Executive Vice President, Katia continues to serve as a consultant to the firm, providing strategic counsel and subject matter expertise to select client initiatives.
During her tenure with Concepts, Katia directed more than 20 federal, state, and nonprofit initiatives focused on strategic communications, policy education, stakeholder engagement, technical assistance, and partnership development. Her portfolio includes work for multiple offices within the U.S. Department of Labor, state agencies, and national organizations. She has led multidisciplinary teams and complex initiatives from strategy through implementation, overseeing strategic planning, communications, stakeholder engagement, partnership development, technical assistance, and the creation of policy and implementation resources.
For more than a decade, she served as Project Director for the U.S. Department of Labor’s nationally recognized State Exchange on Employment & Disability (SEED), leading policy education and technical assistance for state and local policymakers and managing partnerships with more than 30 national intermediary organizations. Her work helped connect policymakers with subject matter expertise and translate complex policy issues into practical resources and strategies for states and communities.
Katia has also led initiatives with Delaware’s Department of Education, Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, New Hampshire’s Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation, and Virginia’s Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, as well as national nonprofit organizations, including the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC), Coalition for Career Development/ALLready, 2Gether International, and the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR).
Earlier in her career, Katia led several major U.S. Department of Labor initiatives, including America’s Heroes at Work, focused on improving employment outcomes for returning service members with TBI and PTSD, as well as initiatives addressing HIV/AIDS and employment, accessible technology in the workplace, and international labor.
Katia’s subject matter expertise includes disability employment, work-based learning and apprenticeships, stay-at-work/return-to-work strategies, accessible and emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, procurement, veterans’ employment, and public-sector workforce policy. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from American University and is a member of the National Association of Government Communicators.
