Katie McClelland

Director, MN Dept. of Employment & Economic Dev.

In March of 2023 Governor Tim Walz appointed Katie McClelland to lead the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Board. In this role Katie leads statewide strategies to grow Minnesota’s workforce and talent pipelines, preparing the workforce to enter high-growth jobs and family sustaining wages. Katie, a Minnesota native, was most recently the Minnesota Technology Association (MnTech) Director of Public Policy & Research, where she led policy and research initiatives to ensure Minnesota has a thriving tech ecosystem.

Katie spent a decade in Washington, DC where she led workforce development policy for the U.S. House Education & Labor Committee and the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee. Her work included leading the reauthorization of Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, the National Apprenticeship Act, and overseeing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and a range of bills and provisions related to education and workforce preparation. Prior to joining the HELP Committee, Katie served as the Director of Education and Workforce Initiatives at The Manufacturing Institute, the nonprofit affiliate of The National Association of Manufacturers where she led work on strategic partnerships between employers and educators to align education and training programs to in-demand skills, competencies and credentials, and projects on increasing diversity and closing the skills gap in manufacturing. Her additional previous employers include the Lumina Foundation, U.S. Congressman George Miller and AmeriCorps VISTA in the Minneapolis Public Schools and Achieve Twin Cities.