She was recruited to join the Obama administration by her friend and mentor, Paul Steven Miller, a former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) commissioner.

She then served as Director of Priority Placement for Public Engagement in the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House where she was responsible for outreach to diversity and minority organizations to recruit professionals to the administration.

In July 2018, Cokley joined the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, first director of the organization's Disability Justice Initiative.

[16] While at CAP, Cokley criticized Eugene Scalia, Donald Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Labor, for his record on worker safety and disability rights.

[22] Cokley has consulted or given expert testimony to the National Council on Independent Living, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the World Bank, the Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work Advisory panel, the President's Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disability, and the committee for the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization.