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Board of Directors

Founding Chair

  • Robert M. Ball

Lisa Mensah (Chair) is Executive Director of the Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute.  Mensah began her career in commercial banking at Citibank prior to working 13 years with the Ford Foundation. Serving as Deputy Director of Economic Development for the organization, Mensah led the Foundation’s work in microfinance and women’s economic development. She became the leading national funder of individual development accounts (IDAs) – an innovative savings account structured with matching incentives and personal financial training used to finance homeownership, entrepreneurship and education. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2005, Mensah served on its Uncharted Waters study panel. She holds an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from Harvard University.

G. Lawrence “Larry” Atkins (President) is Executive Director, U.S. Public Policy for Merck, a global pharmaceutical manufacturer. He will retire from Merck on June 30, 2012 and become NASI’s President. In his current capacity, he oversees U.S. public policy development and provides support for federal reimbursement and government relations. Prior to joining Merck, he held a similar position at Schering-Plough Corporation. Previously, Atkins was President of Health Policy Analysts, a health policy consulting firm specializing in health benefits, insurance markets and pharmaceutical policy. Before that he was at The Jefferson Group and in the Washington D.C. office of the New York law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam and Roberts. During the 1980s, Atkins served as Republican Staff Director and professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. He was also staff to Senator Heinz as Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Private Retirement Plans. In 1982, he was Senator Heinz’s Technical Advisor on the National Commission on Social Security Reform. Atkins was a member of the 1991 Advisory Council on Social Security and also a member of the Technical Advisory Panel on retirement savings for the 1995 Advisory Council on Social Security. A founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, he received his Ph.D. in social welfare policy from Brandeis University.

William Rodgers III (Vice President) is Professor of Economics at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Chief Economist at John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. His research examines issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Rodgers served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2000 to 2001, and he was the Frances L. and Edwin L. Professor Cummings of Economics at the College of William and Mary. Rodgers has appointments as a member of the Graduate Faculty at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and senior research affiliate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. His policy work spans from working on Acting Governor Codey's pensions benefits review task force to serving as a member of Governor Corzine's commission on government efficiency and reform. Currently, he sits on the National Urban League’s Council of Economic Advisors, and he served on President Obama’s Department of Labor Transition Team. Rodgers' expertise is frequently called upon by journalists for articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Financial Times, U.S.A. Today, Business Week, and other publications. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2006, he has served as the Co-Chair for the 2011 NASI Conference, Meeting Today's Challenges in Social Security, Health Reform, and Unemployment Insurance. Rodgers received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. 

Renèe M. Landers (Secretary) is is Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration at Suffolk University Law School. From 2003-2004, she served as president of the Boston Bar Association. She was the first woman of color and the first law professor to serve in that position. She currently teaches health law, constitutional law and administrative law. Before joining the Suffolk University Law School faculty in 2002, Landers served as counsel in the health law group at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray for five years. From 1996 to 1997, she served as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From 1993 until 1996, she was Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before entering government service, Landers taught at Boston College Law School. Landers was a member of NASI’s study panel on Strengthening Medicare’s Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and co-chaired the 21st NASI Conference on ''Social Insurance, Fiscal Responsibility, and Economic Growth''. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2008, Landers received her J.D. from Boston College Law School. 

Jennie Chin Hansen is CEO of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and immediate past President of AARP.  The AGS is the nation's leading membership organization of geriatrics healthcare professionals, whose shared mission is to improve the health, independence and quality of life of older people.  As a pivotal force in shaping practices, policies and perspectives in the field, the Society focuses on: advancing eldercare research; advancing academic preparation and enhancing clinical practice in eldercare; raising public awareness of the healthcare needs of older people; and advocating for public policy that ensures older adults access to quality, appropriate, cost-effective care. In 2005, Hansen transitioned after nearly 25 years with On Lok, Inc., a nonprofit family of organizations providing integrated, globally financed and comprehensive primary, acute and long-term care community based services in San Francisco. The On Lok prototype became the 1997 federal Program of All Inclusive Care to the Elderly (PACE) Program into law for Medicare and Medicaid. Hansen has received multiple awards over the years including the 2003 Gerontological Society of America Maxwell Pollack Award for Productive Living, a 2005 Administrator’s Achievement Award from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and an honorary doctorate from Boston College in 2008. She has received alumni distinction from Boston College and the University of California, San Francisco. She has been a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2002. She received her M.S. in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco.

Jane L. Ross (Treasurer) is retired from her position as Director of the Committee on Law and Justice at the National Research Council of the National Academies in 2012. Previously, she was the Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the Social Security Administration (SSA). In that position, she was an advisor to the Commissioner of Social Security on policy issues, as well as the leader of the policy analysis and research office. She spent several years as the Director for Income Security Issues and Senior Assistant Director for Medicare and Medicaid Issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office. Prior to that, Ross was the Deputy Associate Commissioner for Policy and the Director of the Office of Research, Statistics, and International Policy at SSA. She has served as a consultant to the social security system of Bulgaria on policy analysis and strategic planning matters.  Ross has written and spoken on the long-range financing of social security, the role of social security in the financial security of women and the importance of financial planning for retirement. A founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, she served on its Uncharted Waters study panel and currently serves on its Finance Committee.  Ross received her Ph.D. in economics from American University.

Nancy J. Altman has a thirty-five year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions.  She is co-director of Social Security Works and co-chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition and campaign. She is the author of The Battle for Social Security:  From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble (John Wiley & Sons, 2005).  From 1983 to 1989, Altman was on the faculty of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and taught courses on private pensions and Social Security at the Harvard Law School.  In 1982, she was Alan Greenspan's assistant in his position as chairman of the bipartisan commission that developed the 1983 Social Security amendments.  From 1977 to 1981, she was a legislative assistant to Senator John C. Danforth (R-MO), and advised the Senator with respect to Social Security issues.  From 1974 to 1977, she was a tax lawyer with Covington & Burling, where she handled a variety of private pension matters. A member of the organizing committee and the first board of directors of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Altman has an A.B. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Christine Baker is the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations for the State of California, where she has served since its inception in 1994. Prior to this, she served in several management capacities in the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) including Chief of the Division of Labor Statistics and Research and Deputy Director for the Division of Workers' Compensation. She co-chaired the October 2006 Symposium on Workers' Compensation, Health and Income Security for Injured Workers: Key Policy Issues. She has been a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2002 and chairs its Audit Committee.  Baker received her master's degree from the School of Education at the University of California–Berkeley.

Robert A. Berenson, M.D., is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute and on the faculties of Duke University School of Business and the George Washington University School of Public Health. From 1998 to 2001, he was a senior official in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Before that he had nine-year tenure as board member and medical director of the National Capital Preferred Provider Organization. He also founded and practiced for twelve years in an internal medicine group practice in Washington, D.C. Dr. Berenson served on the Academy’s Study Panel on Medicare Capitation and Choice and as co-chair of its Study Panel on Administrative Issues in Expanding Coverage in Health Care Reform. Previously, Dr. Berenson was an Assistant Director of the Domestic Policy Staff at the White House (1979–1980), and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar (1977–1979). He has written extensively on issues related to physician practice in managed care, physician payment policy, and the politics of health care, and has been published in Health Affairs, New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. A founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Dr. Berenson received his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Judith Feder is a professor of public policy and, from 1999 to 2008, served as Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. Feder has made her mark on the nation’s health insurance system, through both scholarship and public service. A widely published scholar, Feder’s health policy research began at the Brookings Institution, continued at the Urban Institute, and, since 1984, flourished at Georgetown University. In the late 1980s, Feder moved from policy research to policy leadership, actively promoting effective health reform as staff director of the congressional Pepper Commission (chaired by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV) in 1989-90; principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services in former President Bill Clinton’s first term; a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (2008-2011) and, today, as an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute. As dean from 1999 to 2008, she built the Georgetown Public Policy Institute into one of the nation’s leading public policy schools, whose graduates participate in policymaking, policy research, and policy politics, not only throughout Washington but throughout the nation and the world. Feder is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Public Administration, a former chair and board member of AcademyHealth; a member of the Center for American Progress Action Fund Board, and the Hamilton Project’s Advisory Council; and a senior advisor to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of The Journal on Health Care Delivery and Financing of the Social Insurance Research Network (SIRN) and she was co-chair of the Academy’s study panel on Long-Term Care in addition to being a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University.

Marty Ford is Director of the Public Policy Office at The Arc of the United States, a national community-based organization advocating for and serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. Ms. Ford leads the five person team representing The Arc on Capitol Hill and before federal agencies. She is a recognized leader in federal public policy affecting people with disabilities, particularly long term services and supports, Medicaid, and Social Security disability issues, and has testified numerous times before Congress. Ms. Ford served three years as Chairperson of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), a coalition of over 110 national organizations, and continues to serve as its Immediate Past Chairperson. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) since 2000, Ms. Ford served on its study panel for Uncharted Waters: Paying Benefits from Individual Accounts in Federal Retirement Policy and now serves on its Board of Directors and chairs its Membership Committee. She was recognized as the distinguished honoree for disability policy at NASI’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2011. Ms. Ford is Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Advance CLASS and serves on the Board of the Long Term Quality Alliance. A member of the American Bar Association, she has served on its Commission on Law and Aging, currently serving as its disability liaison, and on the Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. She received her J.D. from the George Washington University National Law Center; M.S. from Pratt Institute; and B.A. from the University of Virginia.   

Michael J. Graetz is Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Previously, he was Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He served as Assistant to the Secretary and Special Counsel, U.S. Department of Treasury, and Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy), U.S. Department of Treasury. Prior to that, Graetz served as a Professor of Law at the University Of Southern California, California Institute of Technology and the University of Virginia. Graetz has written numerous articles including The Troubled Marriage of Retirement Security and Tax Policies. His book, True Security: Rethinking American Social Insurance (co-authored with Jerry Mashaw), analyzes the spectrum of U.S. social insurance programs. Graetz is also the author of The Decline (and Fall?) of the Income Tax, published in 1997, and republished in 1999 as The U.S. Income Tax: What it is, How It Got That Way, and Where We Go from Here, and of Death by a Thousand Cuts--The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth (with Ian Shapiro). Graetz served as co-chair of the Academy's 10th Annual Conference, ''Framing the Social Security Debate: Values, Politics, and Economics,'' in January 1998. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1993, He co-chaired its ''Uncharted Waters'' Study Panel, and co-authored the report, Uncharted Waters: Paying Benefits from Individual Accounts in Federal Retirement Policy. Graetz received his LL.B. from the University of Virginia.

Janice M. Gregory served as President of NASI from 2009 to 2012. She retired in 2007 as Senior Vice President for the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), where she directed legislative affairs from 1984 through 2006. From 1979 through 1983, she coordinated activities of the Subcommittee on Social Security for its Chairman, the Honorable J.J. Pickle of Texas. She was awarded the Social Security Administration Commissioner’s Citation in 1984. Gregory served as a co-chair for the Academy's 12th Annual conference, ''Ensuring Health and Income Security for an Aging Workforce,'' in January 2000, and completed two terms as NASI’s Vice President in May 2005. She is a contributing author to Prospects for Social Security Reform and Checks and Balances in Social Security, and is principal author of The Vital Connection: An Analysis of the Impact of Social Security Reform on Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans and Getting the Job Done: A White Paper on Emerging Pension Issues. She was a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Gregory holds a master of science in organization development from American University and a BA with Special Honors from the University of Texas.

G. William Hoagland is Vice President of Federal Affairs at Cigna Corporation. In this position, he leads the development of the company's policy on health care reform issues at the federal and state level. Prior to his arrival at Cigna, Hoagland worked for 33 years as staff in the U.S. Senate. While working in the Senate, he served as the Director of Budget and Appropriations in the Office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist from January 2003 to December 2006, and staff member to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee from 1982 until 2003. In 1981, he served as the Administrator of the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service and as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture.  Hoagland received the 2002 James L. Blum Award for Distinguished Service Leadership in Budgeting. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2008, Hoagland holds degrees from Purdue University and The Pennsylvania State University.

Christopher O’Flinn is President of the Elm Income Group, Inc. Prior to this, he was President of BenefitsAmericas LLC, a marketing research firm specializing in coalition purchasing of employee benefits and services. Previously, O’Flinn spent thirty years with the Mobil Corporation and AT&T. At AT&T, O’Flinn was Vice President, Corporate Human Resources, responsible for Compensation, Benefits, and Employee and Labor Relations. At Mobil Corporation, he held senior positions in the Law Department and in Human Resources, including Employee Relations Counsel and Manager of Compensation and Benefits. O’Flinn has served as Chair of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), Trustee of the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI), Member of the Advisory Council on Pensions to the New York State Comptroller and Chair of the Conference Board Research Council on Benefits. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2000, O’Flinn received his J.D. and LL.M. from New York University School of Law and a BA from Fordham College.

Gerald M. Shea is Assistant to the President for External Affairs at the AFL-CIO.  Shea was appointed by President John J. Sweeney as his assistant upon election in October 1995. Prior to appointment, from June 1994 through October 1995, Shea served as executive assistant to the AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, and, later, executive assistant to the president. From August 1993 through May 1994, Shea was director of the AFL-CIO Employee Benefits Department. Before coming to the AFL-CIO, Shea held the position of Assistant to the President for Government Affairs for the Service Employees International Union.  Shea was a member of the Social Security Advisory Board from 2000 to 2004, after serving from 1994 to 1996 and 1996 to 1998.  Shea serves as a public representative on the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), is a founding board member of the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT), chairs the Rx Health Value Project, and is on the board of the National Quality Forum. Formerly, he served on the Medicare Prospective Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Institute of Medicine's Quality in Health Care Committee's Subcommittee on the External Environment. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1994, he received his degree from Boston College.