The Bellingham Business Journal

Karen Lee, commissioner of the Washington state Employment Security Department, was elected Sept. 25 to serve a one-year term as president of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA).

The association provides a forum for employment security agencies across the country to work together to strengthen the public workforce-development system.  Employment security programs are mostly federally funded, so in addition to sharing ideas for delivering services effectively, the association educates and informs Congress and the federal Department of Labor about the states’ funding and policy needs.

“Having a position of leadership in NASWA is vitally important to our agency and to the state,” Lee said in a statement. “Right now, the Obama administration is making fundamental changes to our unemployment-insurance and workforce-development systems, and it’s important that we help shape and drive these new policies.”

Lee has been active in NASWA since she became commissioner in 2005. She was elected secretary for a year and has served on several committees, including the Unemployment-Insurance and Policy committees, for which she served as chair.

Lee’s tenure as president also included serving as president-elect for the past year and will include a year as past-president starting in September 2010.