From 1990 to 1995, Yesley managed the U.S. Department of Energy's Program on the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of the Human Genome Project and organized scholarly meetings on genetic privacy. Prior to joining the Los Alamos Laboratory, Yesley was a partner in the law firm of Carpenter, Crout & Olmsted in Santa Fe and a senior staff member at RAND. In the early 70's, Yesley was the Director of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Bio-medical and Behavioral Research at the National Institutes of Health where he helped develop federal policy on human experimentation. Yesley received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University and has written widely on genetic privacy and discrimination.