Yocum's academic focus is the training of students in critical design thinking with an emphasis on real world implementation of creative invention. He has spent his 10 year career executing proposals and built projects across a wide scale of work, from single room buildings to new urban campuses for major universities.

Yocum trained and practiced for 8 years with Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects in Atlanta, Georgia, where as a Senior Project Architect he was responsible for the design and delivery of award winning works such as the Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University, the Mountain Tree House in Dilliard, GA, and the New United States Courthouse in Austin, Texas.

In 2006, Yocum launched BLDGS, a new practice with Brian Bell, AIA. Their firm is a full service architectural venture dedicated to the creation of inventive and enduring works of architecture and urban design. Current projects include private residences and public art galleries in and around the Atlanta area. Recent awards include a 2007 National AIA Small Project Award for Villa de Murph, a conversion of an abandoned urban warehouse into a residence and work studio.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1992 from Dartmouth College with majors in History and Studio Art, where he was James B. Reynolds Scholar, and his Master of Architecture in 1997 from Harvard University.