About Michele

Michele Evermore is a senior fellow at think-tank, The Century Foundation (TCF), and one of the nation’s leading experts on unemployment insurance (UI) and social safety net programs. 

She joined TCF from the U.S. Department of Labor, having served as Deputy Director for Policy in the Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization. Evermore was a central figure in the federal government’s historic expansion of unemployment aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, both from within the Biden administration and in her previous role at the National Employment Law Project, where she worked from 2018 to 2021. Her research, advocacy, and commentary were instrumental in pushing Congress to expand access to benefits and increase the duration and generosity of benefits during the pandemic—changes that kept some five million people out of poverty in 2020, studies suggest. 

Prior to NELP, Evermore promoted worker rights as a legislative advocate for labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union District 1199 and the National Nurses United, and worked for the Obama administration’s Department of Labor as a senior legislative officer. Prior to that, she worked in Congress for a decade, primarily for then-Senator Tom Harkin, as well as for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In those roles, she worked to advance worker protections, organizing rights, and improving retirement security in a variety of private pension plan designs, as well as Social Security.