Indivar Dutta-Gupta
Distinguished Visiting Fellow and Senior Advisor
Indivar Dutta-Gupta is the founder and CEO of Blue Lotus Strategies, LLC, based in Washington, DC. He is a recognized researcher, analyst, advocate and policy influencer on U.S. economic policy. Indi is currently a Doris Duke Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance. He frequently advises political candidates and campaigns on child, family, and economic policy, testifies before Congress, and speaks to the media. His earlier work includes senior roles at the Center for Law and Social Policy, Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Freedman Consulting, and DC Hunger Solutions.
A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Indi also serves on the National Academies (NASEM) Committee on Federal Policy Impacts on Child Poverty, on several nonpartisan boards and advisory groups, and as US-Japan Leadership Program delegate.
Indi is a graduate of the University of Chicago, a Congressional Hunger Center Alumni Leadership awardee, one of Washington Life magazine’s most Influential 40-And-Under Leaders, and twice a Rising Star 40 And Under. He is a former Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow, Harry S. Truman Scholar, a First Focus Campaign for Children “Champion for Children”, and co-chair of President Biden’s 2020 campaign’s economic policy committee.
Kathryn Anne Edwards
Senior Fellow
Kathryn Anne Edwards is an economist with decades of experience studying labor market, public policy, and inequality. Previously, Kathryn served as an economist at the RAND Corporation. A Member of the Academy since 2015, she joins the Academy as a Senior Fellow after authoring multiple major Academy reports over the years, including A Young Person’s Guide to Social Security, and as the principal investigator for the Academy’s Economic Security Study Panel from 2019-2021. A contributor to Bloomberg News, where she writes regularly about the economy, Kathryn recently launched a popular podcast called “Optimist Economy,” which explores how the U.S. economy can be improved and empowers listeners to understand that the American economy can—and should—work better for everyone. Kathryn also has a viral social media presence, where she posts regularly about economics, social insurance, and public policy.
Michele Evermore
Senior Fellow
Michele Evermore is a senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, where she focuses on innovating and improving our nation’s fractured unemployment insurance system. One of the nation’s leading authorities on unemployment insurance (UI), Michele comes to NASI as a recent senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a visiting non-resident fellow at the Heldrich Center at Rutgers University, and a visiting faculty at the University of Massachusetts Labor Center.
Michele also served in the Biden administration as deputy director for policy in the newly formed Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization in the U.S. Department of Labor. In that role, she spearheaded efforts to improve the delivery of UI benefits in a timely and accurate manner and ensure equitable access for underserved communities. She represented those efforts to Congress and the press through technical assistance, on-the-record interviews, and Congressional testimony. She also worked for the National Employment Law Project from 2018 to 2021, focused on building a more inclusive and sufficient unemployment insurance system. Her work led to the successful passage and implementation of historic protections for unemployed workers, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, she has worked to promote worker rights as a legislative advocate for labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union District 1199 New England and National Nurses United. She also worked for the Obama administration’s Department of Labor as a senior legislative officer. Prior to that, she worked in Congress for a decade, primarily for then-Senator Tom Harkin and also for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In those roles, she worked to advance worker protections, labor organizing rights, and improving retirement security in a variety of private pension plan designs, as well as Social Security.
Michele has testified before Congress several times and is frequently quoted in major news outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Good Morning America, NPR, Marketplace, Associated Press, Reuters, ABC, NBC, Politico, The Hill, Bloomberg, Time and USA Today, as well as many large regional newspapers, radio shows, and television news. She holds an MS in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a BA in interpersonal rhetoric and communication from Iowa State University.
Alison Barkoff
Senior Fellow
Alison Barkoff is the Harold and Jane Hirsh Associate Professor of Health Law and Policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. She also serves as Director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program.
Prior to joining George Washington University in October 2024, Professor Barkoff led the Administration for Community Living (ACL) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), serving in the role of ACL Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging from January 2021 to October 2024. She was the advisor to the HHS Secretary on aging and disability policy, oversaw national disability and aging programs, and led cross-agency initiatives related to long-term services and supports, civil rights, housing, workforce, family caregiving, healthy aging and public health.
Alison previously served as Special Counsel for Olmstead Enforcement in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, leading efforts to enforce the rights of people with disabilities of all ages to live and fully participate in their communities. She also led interagency initiatives as Special Policy Advisor with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on long-term services and supports and with the U.S. Department of Labor on direct care workforce issues. She has served in a variety of leadership roles in the non-profit sector, including as Director of Advocacy at the Center for Public Representation and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Earlier in her career, she clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor when she was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Judge William Pauley on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
For more than 25 years, Alison has helped shape the national health landscape, focused on improving the lives of people who face the most significant challenges in accessing health care and other critical services. She is a nationally recognized disability rights lawyer who has led precedent-setting legal advocacy focused on access to health care, the right to community living, and combatting discrimination in health care, housing, and education. She has impacted national health policy, leading advocacy efforts related to health care, long-term services and supports, behavioral health and Medicaid. Professor Barkoff is a graduate of Cornell University and Emory University School of Law, where she was the Sol I. Golden Scholar.
Jason J. Fichtner
Senior Fellow
Jason J. Fichtner is Executive Director of the Retirement Income Institute, Alliance for Lifetime Income. He is also on the Board of Directors for the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). Fichtner is a Member of the Puerto Rico Pension Reserve Trust, where he serves on both the Pension Benefits Council and the Pension Reserve Board.
His areas of expertise focus on Social Security, federal tax policy, federal budget policy, retirement security, and policy proposals to increase saving and investment.
Fichtner has significant government experience, having served in several positions at the Social Security Administration, including as Deputy Commissioner of Social Security (acting), Chief Economist, and Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy. He also served as a senior economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress and as an economist with the Internal Revenue Service. He has held teaching positions at Johns Hopkins University – School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Georgetown University and Virginia Tech.
He has testified on numerous occasions before the United States Congress and his work has been featured in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, the USA Today, and other major media outlets, as well as on broadcasts by C-SPAN, PBS, NBC, NPR, and SiriusXM.
Fichtner earned his BA from the University of Michigan; his MPP from Georgetown University; and his PhD from Virginia Tech.
Fichtner is the author of “The Hidden Cost of Federal Tax Policy” and the editor of “The Economics of Medicaid.”
Katie Savin
Ford Fellow in Disability Policy Research
Katie is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at California State University-Sacramento. Their research focuses on disability policy, the welfare state and public health bioethics. They use community-informed, qualitative and mixed methods to center the lived experiences of disabled people in policy analysis with an emphasis on the experiences of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. Katie’s scholarship is shaped by their own experience as a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipient and their background as a medical social worker.
Tyler Bond
Senior Fellow
Taylor Reilly
Equal Justice Works Fellow
Taylor Reilly, J.D., joins the Academy team as the 2025-2027 Equal Justice Works (EJW) Fellow. At age 25, Taylor is one of the 60 public interest leaders appointed by EJW to this class of burgeoning lawyers. Taylor has always been passionate about public service, and has known that she wanted to be a civil rights attorney focusing on intersectional disability advocacy since she was 11 years old, due to living with her grandmother with dementia and her cousin with Down Syndrome.
Taylor is originally from Melbourne, Florida. She graduated from Florida State University (FSU) in the Spring of 2022, Magna Cum Laude, with a B.S. in Psychology, a double-major in English/Creative Writing, and an Undergraduate Certificate in Interdepartmental Developmental Disabilities. Taylor also graduated as a member of the FSU Honors Program, Phi Beta Kappa, Psi Chi, and the FSU Honors Legal Scholars Program.
More recently, Taylor attended Emory School of Law as a Woodruff Scholar. The Woodruff Scholarship and Fellowship program has been historically awarded to students deemed best suited to “carry on Robert W. Woodruff’s legacy of passionate intellectual curiosity, creative leadership, and a strong motivation to use one’s talents and skills for the benefit of others rather than individual glory.” Furthermore, Taylor was an articles editor for the Emory Law Journal, and served as co-president of the Disabled Law Students Association (DLSA). While Taylor has always been a strong advocate for individuals with disabilities, she never imagined that her health issues would lead her to become part of the class she sought to represent. This has led her to explore what it personally means to be a self-advocate as well as an external advocate. Taylor graduated with her J.D. and a concentration in health law in May 2025. She was also one of two students awarded the Gloria Fowler Angel Award as recognition of good character and commitment to public service and justice.