Yale’s Tobin Center Welcomes Yohannes Abraham as Distinguished Policy Fellow
Abraham, an experienced government leader, will advise on the Tobin Center’s work in state capacity.
The Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale University welcomes Yohannes Abraham as a Distinguished Policy Fellow.
Abraham brings to the Tobin Center experience at the highest levels of public service, including as a U.S. Ambassador, a senior White House official in two administrations, and a presidential transition leader.
Abraham will advance the Center’s mission to help government build and act on evidence, with a special emphasis on the Tobin Center’s portfolio in state capacity.
“We are delighted to welcome Yohannes Abraham to the Tobin Center,” said Executive Director David Wilkinson. “Yohannes brings not only a wealth of knowledge from his leadership in government, but also a proven ability to translate evidence into action—exactly the kind of bridge between research and policymaking that defines our mission. We look forward to working with him as we continue to expand the center’s work on state capacity.”
“Important issues—from economic mobility to global competition to modernizing U.S. infrastructure—demand evidence-based solutions designed with execution in mind,” Abraham said. “I am excited to join the Tobin Center, an institution dedicated to advancing that essential work.”
Informing the Tobin Center’s state capacity portfolio
As a Distinguished Policy Fellow, Abraham will draw on his experiences to inform the Tobin Center’s research and policy efforts on state capacity.
As part of the center’s mission since launching in 2019, the center has supported some of the nation’s most influential academic research in this space and in supply-focused abundance strategies. This includes widely-cited work by former OMB Chief Economist and Yale Professor Zach Liscow on how reforms to U.S. permitting systems could speed up infrastructure projects, as well as newer work that quantifies how much states could save on infrastructure projects by hiring and retaining high-quality, public sector engineers.
In 2023, alongside the U.S. Treasury Secretary, the Tobin Center launched an applied state capacity and abundance initiative, announcing a series of joint state and local efforts in Connecticut. These efforts have since been recognized as an exemplary model of state-university partnership. In the fall of 2025, at a bipartisan event featuring remarks by the governors of North Dakota and Connecticut and other state leaders, the Tobin Center launched a new phase of this work that aims to form a national abundance research agenda, to expand state capacity and abundance efforts across the country, and to build bipartisan interest in these new solutions.
A career at the center of American government
Abraham has built a career at the center of American government.
He has held senior positions across two presidential administrations, most recently as a U.S. Ambassador. Abraham has led two presidential transition planning efforts and has served in several senior White House roles, including as Senior Advisor to the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement. In these roles, he sat at the intersection of federal, state, and local policy.
Abraham is a graduate of Yale College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is the Compton Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia and previously taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Abraham’s affiliation represents the bridge between research and practice that the Tobin Center works to foster. His leadership roles have consistently required translating complex economic and policy analysis into actionable strategies—whether negotiating with international counterparts, supporting U.S. presidents, or coordinating across agencies to drive forward priorities.
Abraham’s experience will advance the center’s broader mission to improve the conditions in government to both build and act on evidence.
Please join us in welcoming Abraham to his new role at Yale.