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4-7-2026
Kyla Guyette is the founding CEO of the Oklahoma Workforce Commission. Ms. Guyette was previously the founder and principal of The Work Lab, a boutique consulting firm specialized in workforce development system effectiveness, regional collaboration and innovative programming. In this capacity, Ms. Guyette trained and lectured at Local Workforce Development Boards around the country and has been a decade-long advocate at the federal level. She also served as Director of Strategic Partnerships for KRA Corporation with the objective of organization-wide modernization and strategy.
Previously, Ms. Guyette served as the Executive Director of the Greater Memphis Local Workforce Development Board and the founding President of Workforce Mid-South, Inc. In concurrent roles, she oversaw workforce development funding and initiatives in the four-county area of Shelby, Fayette, Tipton and Lauderdale Counties of Western Tennessee and, increasingly, the larger Mid-South region which extends across a 44-county span of West Tennessee Grand Division, Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas.
During her tenure, Ms. Guyette created and fostered the development of Workforce Mid-South, Inc. as a recognized 501c3 nonprofit to more effectively and efficiently deliver workforce services across the region ensuring a continuously diversified revenue base to enable mid-southerners ability to access a robust workforce ecosystem whether from the employer or job seeker perspectives. Aligning efforts, leveraging resources and eliminating duplication have been consistent drivers in system transformation with the theme of universal access through an equity lens serving as a grounding foundation to all work. Ms. Guyette is quoted to say, “The zip code where you happen to be born should never dictate your opportunities for success in life. We will continue our purposeful imagining of local communities and never stop pushing us all, as a collective, to become who we were always meant to be. Our goals are ambitious and our vision is HUGE because we wholeheartedly believe in the potential for greatness. There is much work to do for us all to realize that ideal; but, we are committed to it every single day.”
The spirit of this vision was demonstrated through initiatives Ms. Guyette began at Workforce Mid-South, including the Mid-South Opportunity Center, Mid-South Youth Opportunity Center and the EDA Good Jobs Award recipient Opportunity NOW Accelerated Training Centers (delivering high quality credential opportunities in 30% time of traditional post-secondary).
Ms. Guyette brings over 18 years of experience in workforce programming with a specialization in serving muti-barriered individuals and young adults. Nationally, she is recognized as a subject matter expert in programs to address the specific challenges of workforce engagement for opportunity youth and systems innovation. Ms. Guyette is seated on the US Conference of Mayors’ Workforce Development Council and the National Association of Workforce Boards Board of Directors. She is a former Results for America Fellow and is engaged across the country in workforce related consulting projects with an invitation-only Workforce Leaders think tank. Ms. Guyette is also an approved workforce development trainer for the International Economic Development Council.
Ms. Guyette is an alumna of the University of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Law. She is married and is the mother to a seven year old son, Adam
Chair of the Day
Kirsten Lindsay
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