Ms. Choitz was the Associate Director of the Economic Opportunities Program at the Aspen Institute. She provided strategic research and leadership for a number of program initiatives to identify and advance strategies that help low-income Americans gain ground in today’s labor market. Her primary focus was to advance the EOP’s work to improve both the quality of low-wage jobs and career advancement opportunities simultaneously as a key strategy to address deepening economic inequality in America.

Ms. Choitz has over 15 years of experience in national organizations promoting economic security and career advancement opportunities for low-income workers and job seekers. Prior to joining the Institute, she most recently worked at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), where she was interim director of the Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success (C-PES) and director of the Alliance for Quality Career Pathways. During her time at CLASP she worked with pioneering state partnerships and led the development of a consensus-based voluntary framework for developing and strengthening state and local/regional career pathway systems that provide workers and job seekers with clear paths and supports to credentials and family-supporting employment. She also led CLASP’s federal postsecondary policy work and collaborated with other national organizations to successfully defend funding for the Federal Pell Grant program during the recent sequestration and appropriations cuts for most federal programs. Ms. Choitz also has worked at Jobs for the Future, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), and FutureWorks. She has a Masters of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and baccalaureate degrees in political science and secondary education and women ’s studies minor from Kansas State University.