Washington, D.C. – The National Academy of Social Insurance is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Robert M. Ball Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Insurance, along with this year’s winners of the Frances Perkins Next Generation Award and the inaugural Robert Pear Award for Excellence in Social Insurance Journalism.
The Academy will present these awards at its 40th Anniversary Gala and Robert M. Ball Award celebration on Tuesday, June 9th, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1986, the Academy is marking four decades of advancing research, education, and dialogue on the systems that protect Americans across the lifespan, from retirement and disability to caregiving, job loss, and beyond. The awards gala will bring together leaders across government, business, labor, academia, journalism, and advocacy to celebrate bold, visionary leadership advancing social insurance in the U.S.
The Robert M. Ball Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Insurance
The Robert M. Ball Award honors the Academy’s founder, Social Security’s longest-serving Commissioner, and a transformative force behind Social Security, Medicare, and the broader U.S. social insurance system.
Each year, the Academy presents the Robert M. Ball Award to leaders whose work reflects Bob Ball’s enduring commitment to protecting and strengthening social insurance for future generations. This year’s Robert M. Ball Award will be presented to Lex Frieden and Ai-jen Poo, two extraordinary leaders whose work has shaped the national conversation on care, which remains an area of unfinished business within American social insurance policy.
Lex Frieden is a foundational leader in disability rights and one of the principal architects of the Americans with Disabilities Act. For decades, his leadership has moved the nation closer to a society where disabled people can participate fully and equally. Today, he continues to fight for one of the most important missing pieces of the U.S. social insurance system: long-term care.
Ai-jen Poo has spent her career reshaping how the country understands and values care. Through her leadership, she has helped build a movement that connects the well-being of families, workers, people with disabilities, caregivers, and an aging population—issues that are increasingly central to the future of social insurance. Poo serves as the Executive Director of Caring Across Generations and the President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
“As the Academy marks its 40th anniversary, this is both a moment to celebrate an extraordinary legacy and a moment to recommit ourselves to the work ahead,” said Rebecca Vallas, Chief Executive Officer of the National Academy of Social Insurance. “Bob Ball and the Academy’s founders challenged the nation to continue the work of building systems that assure economic security, dignity, and opportunity across a lifetime. Forty years later, that vision remains this community’s North Star. Both Lex Frieden and Ai-jen Poo embody that tradition of leadership—expanding our understanding of who belongs and pushing us to build a society that better reflects our shared responsibility to one another.”
The Frances Perkins Next Generation Award
The evening will also feature the second annual Frances Perkins Next Generation Awards, presented in partnership with the Frances Perkins Center. Named for one of the visionary architects of the New Deal and the first woman U.S. cabinet secretary, the award honors rising leaders who are carrying forward Frances Perkins’ spirit of courage, moral imagination, and devotion to the common good.
The 2026 Frances Perkins Next Generation Awardees are Sabrina Davis of Social Security Works, Will Raderman of the Searchlight Institute, and Casey Doherty of the Center for American Progress’s Disability Justice Initiative.
“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Academy through the Frances Perkins Next Generation Award,” said Amanda Hatch, Executive Director of the Frances Perkins Center. “Our organization shares a similar mission of not only telling Frances Perkins’ impactful story, but also inspiring current and future generations to understand and further the government’s role in assuring economic security across the lifespan—work that each of this year’s honorees are leading the way in carrying forward.”
The Robert Pear Award for Excellence in Social Insurance Journalism
This year, the Academy is thrilled to debut the Robert Pear Award for Excellence in Social Insurance Journalism, honoring the vital role that journalism plays in strengthening public understanding of the programs that underpin economic security in the United States.
The award is named in honor of Robert Pear, a longtime Academy member and legendary New York Times reporter whose decades of coverage set the standard for rigorous, fair, and deeply informed reporting on health policy and social insurance. Over the course of his career, Pear brought clarity and depth to some of the nation’s most complex policy issues, helping policymakers and the public alike better understand the stakes of decisions affecting millions of Americans.
The Robert Pear Award celebrates reporting that is rigorous, accessible, and impactful—work that informs public debate, elevates lived experience, and deepens understanding of the role social insurance plays in advancing economic security. The award will be presented annually to one distinguished journalist whose body of work exemplifies excellence in reporting on social insurance and its role in American life.
The Academy is honored to present the inaugural Robert Pear Award to Julie Rovner. Julie Rovner is Chief Washington Correspondent at KFF Health News. Over the course of her career, including 16 years at NPR covering health policy and the Affordable Care Act, Julie has helped millions of Americans better understand the systems that shape their health and economic well-being. Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.
“Julie Rovner has a rare blend of deep expertise in health policy, a keen understanding of the interplay between politics and policy, and an extraordinary gift for explaining complex issues in plain language,” said Tricia Neuman, Senior Vice President of KFF and a member of the Academy’s Board of Directors. “Like Robert Pear, Julie has been the reporter people count on when they want accurate information about major health policy debates, and what’s at stake for ordinary Americans. Throughout her career, Julie has also been a generous mentor to countless national, state and local reporters. When it comes to health policy reporting, Julie is a national treasure. She carries forward the work and legacy of Robert Pear with distinction.”
About the National Academy of Social Insurance
Founded in 1986, The National Academy of Social Insurance is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance policy, practice, research, and innovation. Its mission is to advance solutions to challenges facing the nation by increasing public understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security.
Contact: Zane Snyder Cox, zsnydercox@nasi.org