Taryn Mackenzie Williams is joining the White House Office of Public Engagement as a liaison to the disability community. (Thinkstock)

Taryn Mackenzie Williams is joining the White House Office of Public Engagement as a liaison to the disability community. (Thinkstock)

A fresh face is on board at the White House tasked with focusing on disability issues.

Starting this week, Taryn Mackenzie Williams will serve as a liaison between the disability community and the president as an associate director in the White House’s Office of Public Engagement.

She fills a role that has been vacant since Claudia Gordon left in the spring to return to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs after less than a year in the post.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

In much the same fashion, Williams’ appointment is expected to be short-term. Williams will essentially be “on loan” from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy where she works as a senior policy adviser, according to Lawrence Carter-Long at the National Council on Disability, a federal agency that advises the president on disability policy.

In addition to her work at the Labor Department, Williams previously did a stint at the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions where she contributed to a report on the so-called ADA generation, those who have come of age since the passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.

Read more stories like this one. Sign up for Disability Scoop's free email newsletter to get the latest developmental disability news sent straight to your inbox.