David Yokum

David Yokum is North Carolina’s Chief Scientist in the Office of State Budget and Management. He is also a professor of the practice at the School of Data Science & Society (SDSS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs The Policy Lab.

David has served as director of The Lab @ DC in the D.C. Mayor’s Office and was a member of the White House’s social and behavioral sciences team, and director of the U.S. Office of Evaluation Sciences. He works with local, state, and federal governments to generate and use evidence in policymaking, while pursuing a research agenda on the psychology of how people change their minds and make decisions, especially as related to the interpretation and use of data.