Katie Breault

Katie Breault discovered placing people in jobs is her passion when a mentorship to a Year Up intern led to a formal role at Year Up in 2014. She left in 2017 to launch a placement program for young adults with disabilities, but soon realized that the greatest opportunity for impact was through the staffing industry.

So, in 2018, she joined Year Up’s placement arm, Year Up Professional Resources, PBC (Yupro) as a regional director. She has since been promoted to VP of corporate engagement, connecting Yupro to mission-aligned employers seeking diversity hiring solutions for entry-level talent.

Her passion for connecting diverse talent with career opportunities is grounded in personal experience, having seen how the lack of opportunity and degree limitations led to employment struggles for her own father. Being able to advocate for people like her father, young adults who face barriers to employment, “connected personally to me in a way that helps open up those opportunities that may otherwise go to another staffing firm.”

Breault also led Yupro’s pilot apprenticeship program to help historically excluded talent secure full-time employment with leading employers.

On the heels of the pandemic, Breault and Yupro, along with employer partners and clients, aimed to reconnect displaced young adults with the economic mainstream, which led to the launch of the OnRamps@Work series of programs.

The program has already connected over 100 displaced young adults into the economic mainstream.