31st Annual Policy Conference

Opening Reception:
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Main Program:
Thursday, January 31, 2019
7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

National Press Club
529 14^th Street NW, Washington, DC 20045

The National Academy of Social Insurance hosted its 31st annual policy conference in Washington, DC at the National Press Club on January 30 and 31, 2019. The focus of the conference was to examine facts about economic insecurity in the United States today, and to explore policy options for improving the financial prospects of all Americans, particularly Millennials and future generations.

When the U.S. was industrializing and urbanizing in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, workers, businesses, and civic leaders cooperated to adopt a series of pioneering social policies. Many of these policies and programs – including Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Workers’ Compensation, and health care coverage through Medicare and Medicaid – continue to protect millions of Americans today.

We have now entered a new century and a new millennium, and individuals across all generations are vulnerable to economic displacement from automation, globalization, changing work arrangements, and other major disruptions. The 2018 Report of the Social Security Trustees projects that without adjustments to augment the program, workers retiring 16 years from now might receive only three-quarters of the benefits promised. Polls show, however, that many working Americans – Millennials and others – believe that they will receive no Social Security benefits whatsoever. More immediately, many are struggling to pay off student loans, now totaling over $1.5 trillion. The typical worker has no retirement savings. Disparities across communities and demographics present additional major challenges, further fueling the nation’s persistent problem of inequality.

Among the questions facing the nation and policymakers are:

What assumptions about the risks workers face are supported by facts and what assumptions may be mere impressions?

What risks do current social insurance programs address? Do we need to develop new economic and social policies to address different risks facing younger generations?

How might we improve existing policies and programs to solve challenges facing various communities and generations?

How might the creative and entrepreneurial vision of Millennials engage with other generations to build on our nation’s 20^th century accomplishments to address 21^st century risks more effectively?

How might we contribute to a more vibrant and functional democratic society by strengthening sources of economic security and narrowing income inequality?

Who: This is a conference for health, economic, retirement, and social policy experts, as well as for emerging and established social entrepreneurs, and other public and private sector professionals working to regenerate the promise of social insurance to enhance economic security in the 21^st century.

Download the Regenerating Social Insurance chartbook.

Note: Download Speaker Presentations by selecting the names in green below.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

5:00 PM Opening Reception

Keynote Panel: Economic Concerns of Younger Generations: Evidence and Experiences to Inform Policy

Moderator: Donna Butts, Executive Director, Generations United

Jean Accius, Vice President, Long-Term Services & Supports and Livable Communities Group, AARP Public Policy Institute

Evan Avila, 2018 iOme Challenge Winner

Katie Kirchner, National Director, Roosevelt Network

Hans Riemer, Councilmember At-Large, Montgomery County Maryland

Thursday, January 31, 2019

7:30 AM Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:00 AM Welcome Remarks

William Rodgers, III, Board Chair, National Academy of Social Insurance

8:10 AM Networking Breakfast

8:40 AM Session 1: Emerging and Uninsured Risks Facing Younger Generations

Overview: Younger Americans are exposed to numerous forms of risk, some insured by social insurance programs, and some not. This session will give an overview of a set of uninsured risks: rising home prices and rental costs in most American cities; the size and burden of student loans; dual caregiving needs of children as well as aging parents; and unemployment, which is addressed by existing unemployment insurance (UI) programs, but over the decades has become increasingly inadequate.

Moderator: Kathryn Edwards, Associate Economist, RAND Corporation

Presenters:

Student debt: Colleen Campbell, Managing Director, Postsecondary Education, Center for American Progress

Housing/Affordability: Laurie Goodman, Co-Director, Housing Finance Policy Center, Urban Institute

Economy/Unemployment: Elisabeth Jacobs, Senior Director, Family Economic Security, Washington Council for Equitable Growth

Caregiving: Yulya Truskinovsky, Assistant Professor of Economics, Wayne State University

9:45 AM Break

9:55 AM Session 2: The Changing Nature of Work: Challenges and Solutions

Overview: Do we need to develop new economic and social policies to address the changing nature of work facing today's workers and younger generations? In this session, we will discuss the many megatrends influencing the future of work; and we will explore the implications for society, employers, employees, and social insurance.

Moderator: Ramsey Alwin, Director of Thought Leadership, Financial Resilience, Office of Policy, Research, and International Affairs, AARP

Panelists:

Romina Boccia, Director, Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, The Heritage Foundation

Jessica Fulton, Director, Economic Policy, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Aliya Robinson, Executive Director, Retirement Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Shelly Steward, Research Manager, Future of Work Initiative, Aspen Institute

10:55 AM Break

11:05 AM Session 3: Universal Family Care to Support Workers and Families

Overview: Caregiving has historically been undervalued in the United States, despite the reality that the risk of needing to provide or receive care is truly universal. One new public policy proposal to address the care needs of individuals and families is Universal Family Care (UFC), a social insurance program that protects against three caregiving risks: paid family and medical leave, early child care and education, and long-term services and supports. This session will discuss the benefits and challenges of creating a unified program for such diverse caregiving risks, of using a social insurance model, and of different policy design options for developing a state-level UFC program.

Moderator: Josie Kalipeni, Director of Policy and Federal Affairs, Caring Across Generations

Universal Family Care Study Panel Report Presenters:

Alexandra L. Bradley, Lead Policy Analyst, Academy Study Panel on Caregiving

Henry Claypool, Founder, Claypool Consulting

Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Co-Executive Director, Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality

Ben Veghte, Project Director, Academy Study Panel on Caregiving

12:05 PM Break

12:30 PM Luncheon Keynote

In a discussion led by Cathy Koch, EY Americas Tax Policy Leader, conference participants will review findings from EY's 2018 survey on "The Millennial Economy."

1:45 PM Session 4: Health Care Coverage Across the Generations: The Connection to Economic Security and Participation in Work

Overview: The current political environment presents several threats as well as opportunities for ensuring access to health care across the generations. This session will provide: an update on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the impact so far on millennials; a discussion of state-level efforts to add a work requirement to Medicaid and the response of local stakeholders; a review of recent policy proposals to expand access to Medicare for all Americans and to address the cost of prescription drugs, particularly from an intergenerational perspective.

Moderator: Walt Dawson, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Global Brain Health Institute, University of California - San Francisco
Medicaid: Cindy Gillespie, Director, Arkansas Department of Human Services
Prescription Drug Pricing: Jane Horvath, Principal, Horvath Health Policy
ACA: Renée Landers, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School
Medicare-for-All: Deborah Ojeda-Leitner, Science and Technology James Marshall Public Policy Fellow

2:55 PM Break

3:05 PM Session 5: Social Security Across the Lifespan: Addressing Misconceptions among Young People

Overview: Social Security has been plagued by widespread public misconceptions since its beginning, and generations of young people have questioned whether they even have a stake in the program. This session will explore how we got here (the history of how misperceptions arose) and most importantly, where we go from here: insights on messaging and other public education strategies for helping all Americans realize their important stake in Social Security's retirement and disability protections.

Moderator: Helaine Olen, Writer, Washington Post

Meg Bostrom, Co-Founder, Topos Partnership
Rebecca Cokley, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Kathleen Romig, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

4:05 PM Session 6: Assured Income as a Mechanism to Promote Economic Security

Overview: There is much public debate today about different program designs - and the objectives - for assuring a base level of income to each human being through the life course. Little of the current discussion considers ways that existing social insurance programs might be redesigned with this goal in mind, or how these programs have proven the most successful policy instruments employed thus far in meeting this objective. If one is looking for lessons on how to implement programs that assure a base level of income to beneficiaries, one should start with social insurance. Should we consider social insurance as a means to assure income more broadly than current programs allow? What insights from social insurance might inform discussions about basic income strategies? This session will consider these questions from a diverse range of perspectives.

Moderator: H. Luke Shaefer, Associate Professor, School of Social Work and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Director, Poverty Solutions, University of Michigan
"Assured Income and Social Insurance" Presentation: Bill Arnone, Chief Executive Officer, National Academy of Social Insurance
Sam Hammond, Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy, Niskanen Center
Taylor Jo Isenberg, Managing Director, Economic Security Project
Dorian Warren, President, Center for Community Change

5:20 PM Conference adjourns

Opening Reception (January 30, 2019)

Bill Arnone, Wei-Ting Yen, Isabel Perera, Jason Barabas

Left to right: Donna Butts, Jean Accius, Katie Kirchner, Evan Avila, Hans Riemer

Main Sessions (January 31, 2019)

Left to right: Elisabeth Jacobs, Yulya Truskinovsky, Kathryn Edwards, Laurie Goodman, Colleen Campbell

Left to right: Aliya Robinson, Romina Boccia, Jessica Fulton, Shelly Steward, Ramsey Alwin

Left to right: Ben Veghte, Alexandra L. Bradley, Henry Claypool, Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Josie Kalipeni, Bill Arnone

Left to right: Cindy Gillespie, Jane Horvath, Walt Dawson, Renée Landers, Deborah Ojeda-Leitner

Left to right: Kathleen Romig, Rebecca Cokley, Helaine Olen, Meg Bostrom

Left to right: Taylor Jo Isenberg, Sam Hammond, H. Luke Shaefer, Dorian Warren, Bill Arnone

Jean Accius, Vice President, Long-Term Services & Supports and Livable Communities Group, AARP Public Policy Institute

Jean Accius is a nationally recognized thought leader in aging, health policy, livable communities and long-term services and supports. He is the Vice President of the Long-term Services and Supports and Livable Communities Group within the AARP Public Policy Institute. In this role, he provides strategic direction, leadership and technical expertise to create and drive innovative policy solutions that raise awareness, foster meaningful dialogue and spark action to improve the lives of millions of older adults and the families who support them.

Accius brings deep knowledge and a wealth of experience having served in positions across the private, public and nonprofit sectors. He has been quoted by or appeared in numerous media outlets, including USA Today, Reuters, Politico, Next Avenue, ESPN’s Undefeated, Congressional Quarterly’s online arm and the Huffington Post. In 2017, The National Academy of Social Insurance recognized him as one of the new generation of social insurance leaders in the country. In 2018, he was recognized as a Gerontological Society of America Fellow, one of Black Enterprise magazine’s 2018 Modern Man of Distinction and a recipient of the Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund 40 under 40 Award.

He serves on a variety of boards and advisory committees including Justice in Aging, the American Society on Aging, Long-Term Quality Alliance, Leadership Maryland, and the Florida State University Alumni Association. He also serves on the Editorial Advisory Committee for Generations, the journal for the American Society on Aging, and the South Florida Institute on Aging Policy Council. Accius is an Executive Leadership Council Fellow and holds a bachelor’s degree in hospitality administration and a master’s degree in aging studies from the Claude Pepper Institute at Florida State University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from American University.

Ramsey Alwin, Director of Thought Leadership, Financial Resilience, Office of Policy, Research, and International Affairs, AARP

Ramsey Alwin’s work focuses on longevity trends and economic security issues, especially as they relate to older adults. She was instrumental in formulating the Elder Economic Security Index for measuring the daily cost-of-living for an individual 65 and older of a given housing status, household composition, and location. Alwin has worked with federal agency officials, Congressional staff, local agency authorities, and as a spokesperson for print and broadcast media. Prior to her position at AARP, Alwin was Vice President of Economic Security for the National Council on Aging (NCOA). At NCOA, she directed the Economic Security Initiative, a national multi-site demonstration project to help struggling seniors tap community resources, and the Home Equity Initiative, which educated older homeowners on the wise use of their home equity. Her efforts resulted in the creation of Savvy Saving Seniors® financial education toolkits and an online decision support tool, EconomicCheckUp®. Alwin served on the Workplace Flexibility 2010 Task Force on Phased Retirement at Georgetown University’s Law Center and the Advisory Board of the U.S. Administration on Aging. She has a B.A. in social policy from Simmons College. Alwin was elected to the Academy in 2010.

Bill Arnone, Chief Executive Officer, National Academy of Social Insurance

is Chief Executive Officer at the Academy. As a Partner with Ernst & Young LLP for 15 years up to 2009, he was responsible for the strategic positioning, design, management, marketing, and thought leadership of retirement and financial education and counseling in employer-sponsored programs. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, he was Principal, Benefit Consultant, and National Director of Financial & Retirement Planning Services for Buck Consultants, Inc. (now part of Xerox). He joined Buck in 1981 after serving as Director, Senior Security Services, for the New York City Department for the Aging. He also served as Consultant on Employment of Older Workers for the Florence V. Burden Foundation in New York. He previously was Executive Director of Helping Aged Needing Direction in the Bronx. He also served as a staff associate with the New York City Board of Correction. He is co-author of Ernst & Young’s Retirement Planning Guide (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001). He is an Associate Editor of The Columbia Retirement Handbook (Columbia University Press, 1994). He is a Founding Board Member of the Academy and served on the Academy's Board of Directors from 1986 to 1994. He co-chaired the Academy’s 2010 conference, “Beyond the Bad Economy.” and has served on the Academy’s Strategic Planning Committee and chaired its advisory committee for Ford Foundation organizational awards to enable the voices of vulnerable segments of the U.S. population to participate effectively in the debate on the future of Social Security. He received a J.D. from New York University Law School in 1973. He was selected as one of the first Charles H. Revson Fellows on the Future of New York City by the Columbia University School of Business for 1979-1980.

Evan Avila, 2018 iOme Challenge Winner

Evan Avila is a junior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he is pursuing a B.A. in both economics and political science. He is the winner of the 2018 iOme Challenge, a national research competition about financial security in retirement, held by the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER). At UMBC, he is the manager of a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site with 60 volunteers and is a distinguished advocate of financial literacy among the student population.

Romina Boccia, Director, Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, The Heritage Foundation

Romina Boccia, a leading fiscal and economic expert at The Heritage Foundation, is director of the think tank’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget. Boccia leads a team of experts covering fiscal policy, Social Security, pension reform, and workforce issues such as the gender wage gap and workplace benefits policy. She often advises members of Congress, the administration and their staffs on economic and fiscal policy issues, and she has testified before congressional committees in the House and Senate. She’s the editor of Heritage’s flagship budget proposal, The Blueprint for Balance, and leads the organization's project on the future of work.

Meg Bostrom, Co-Founder, Topos Partnership

Meg Bostrom is a veteran communications strategist with a unique perspective resulting from her rich and varied experiences as communicator, public opinion analyst, advertising agency executive, and political consultant. As co-founder of the Topos Partnership, she has researched public opinion and analyzed communications strategies on a wide range of social issues.

Alexandra L. Bradley, Lead Policy Analyst, Academy Study Panel on Caregiving

Alexandra L. Bradley is the Lead Policy Analyst for the Caregiving Study Panel project. For three years, she worked with the National Academy of Social Insurance conducting research and policy analysis on issues related to caregiving and health, including paid family and medical leave, long-term services and supports, Medicaid, and early child care and education. She also has many years of experience providing direct services, and is currently managing the outreach program of a community-based harm reduction organization serving marginalized communities across Washington, DC. Bradley holds a master of public health degree with a concentration in maternal & child health from The George Washington University and bachelor's degrees in psychology and government from Cornell University.

Donna Butts, Executive Director, Generations United

Donna Butts is the Executive Director of Generations United, a position she has held since 1997. For more than 30 years, Butts has worked tirelessly to promote the well-being of children, youth and older adults through nonprofit organizations across the country and around the world. She began her career in her home state of Oregon as a youth worker with the YWCA, where she worked one-on-one with teens and saw the positive effects of intergenerational programs firsthand. Butts has held leadership positions with Covenant House, a New York-based international youth serving organization, and the National 4-H Council. She served as the Executive Director for the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention before taking the helm of Generations United.

An internationally sought-after speaker, author and advocate, Butts frequently speaks on intergenerational connections, grandparents raising grandchildren and policies effective across the lifespan. Her commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal. She has been interviewed on the TODAY Show, National Public Radio and ABC News, and was invited by the United Nations to sit on four expert panels most recently on intergenerational solidarity and social cohesion in preparation for the 2014 20th anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

In 2004, Butts was honored with the National Council on Aging’s Jack Ossofsky Award for Leadership, Creativity, and Innovation in Programs and Services for Older Persons. She served as a 2005 delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. A respected author, she has written countless articles, chapters and publications regarding the welfare of children, youth and older adults.

Butts received her undergraduate degree from Marylhurst College and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. She is a former chair of the board of the International Consortium of Intergenerational Programmes (ICIP) and serves on the boards of the National Human Services Assembly and Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. She was recognized three years in a row (2012, 2013 and 2014) by The Nonprofit Times as one of the Top 50 most powerful and influential nonprofit executives in the nation, and received the Seabury Leadership in Aging Award in 2014.

Colleen Campbell, Managing Director, Postsecondary Education, Center for American Progress

Colleen Campbell is a managing director for Postsecondary Education at American Progress. She was formerly a senior policy analyst at the Association of Community College Trustees and a research analyst at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Prior to working in higher education policy, Campbell served as the assistant director of financial aid at the Juilliard School. Her work focuses on providing accessible, equitable postsecondary opportunities and financing options for underrepresented communities and adult learners. Campbell holds a master’s degree in public policy and master of arts in higher education from the University of Michigan.

Henry Claypool, Founder, Claypool Consulting

Henry Claypool, codirector of AIMMM, is former senior advisor for disability policy to the administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) at HHS. While at HHS he played a key role in marshalling a highly effective implementation effort in response to the Olmstead decision that involved an extensive review of federal policy and development of guidance to states on the operation of the Medicaid program. He also was instrumental in developing policies that expanded Medicare's coverage policy regarding certain assistive technologies. After becoming disabled when he was a student at the University of Colorado, Claypool went on to become the director of the disability services office at its Boulder campus.

Rebecca Cokley, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Rebecca Cokley is the director of the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress, where her work focuses on changing how the progressive movement includes and centers the voices of the disability communities. Most recently, she served as the executive director of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent agency charged with advising Congress and the White House on issues of national disability public policy. She joined the NCD in 2013 after serving in the Obama administration for four years, including time at the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a successful stint at the White House where she oversaw diversity and inclusion efforts. Cokley got her feet wet in advocacy while working at the Institute for Educational Leadership, where she built a number of tools and resources designed to empower and educate youth with disabilities and their adult allies. Since then, she has spent the last 15 years helping make stronger and deeper connections across civil rights communities and continues to see cross-movement solidarity as the only means of surviving these next four years. In 2015, she was inducted into the inaugural class of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the Frank Harkin Memorial Award by the National Council on Independent Living. Cokley has a B.A. in politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is the proud spouse of Patrick and mother of Jackson, Kaya, and Kendrick. She is currently writing her first book.

Walt Dawson, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Global Brain Health Institute, University of California - San Francisco

Walter Dawson is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health in the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Portland State University Institute on Aging. Previously, Dawson served as the Director of Research and Analytics at the Oregon Health Care Association in Portland, Oregon and as a Fulbright Scholar to Canada, where he held the Visiting Research Chair in Governance and Public Policy at McMaster University. Dawson has worked extensively in public policy including in Washington, DC at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and at the National Academy of Social Insurance. In 2016, Dawson was appointed by Oregon's Governor Kate Brown to the Governor’s Commission on Senior Services. Dawson holds a Master’s from the London School of Economics, and a doctorate in social policy from the University of Oxford.

Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Co-Executive Director, Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality

Indivar Dutta-Gupta is Co-Executive Director at the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality where he leads work to develop and advance ideas for reducing poverty and economic inequality in the U.S., with particular attention to gender and racial equity. Dutta-Gupta is also a member of the Poverty, Employment and Self-Sufficiency Network, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as Canada’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Poverty Reduction. Previously, he was Project Director at Freedman Consulting, LLC, leading strategic initiatives for major philanthropies, children’s groups, and workers’ organizations. Dutta-Gupta served as Senior Policy Advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, focusing on budget and tax policies and cross-cutting low-income issues. Earlier, he focused on safety net, tax, and social insurance programs and policies as U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Professional Staff. As an Emerson National Hunger Fellow, Indivar worked for DC Hunger Solutions and the Center for American Progress. He has been named a First Focus Campaign for Children Champion for Children and was awarded the Congressional Hunger Center Alumni Leadership Award (2016). He was named one of Washington Life magazine’s most Influential 40-And-Under Leaders (2013) and Rising Stars 40 and Under (2016). Dutta-Gupta is an honors graduate of the University of Chicago and a Harry S Truman Scholar.

Kathryn Edwards, Associate Economist, RAND Corporation

Kathryn Edwards is a member of the 2019 Conference Planning Committee. After working as a research assistant at the Economic Policy Institute from 2008 - 2011, Edwards attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received her Ph.D. in economics. Along the way, Edwards was a graduate fellow of the Institute for Research on Poverty and a summer fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Jessica Fulton, Director, Economic Policy, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Jessica Fulton is the Economic Policy Director at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Prior to joining the Joint Center, she served as External Relations Director at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She has also held positions at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and the Chicago Urban League. Fulton is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and serves as Board Chair of The Black Swan Academy. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in economic policy analysis from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at Depaul University.

Cindy Gillespie, Director, Arkansas Department of Human Services
Cindy Gillespie serves as the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Director. In this capacity, she is a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. She is responsible for leadership and oversight of the department’s efforts, which support the health and well-being of all Arkansans, especially those who are most in need. Before joining DHS, Gillespie served as a Principal in the Washington D.C. office of Dentons’ Public Policy and Regulation practice and a leader of the firm’s Health Policy and Health Insurance Exchange Teams. Earlier, Gillespie served as a senior advisor to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, where she led the Commonwealth of Massachusetts interactions with the federal government and oversaw development and implementation of the Administration’s executive branch initiatives, including playing a leading role in the development of Massachusetts health reforms.

Laurie Goodman, Co-Director, Housing Finance Policy Center, Urban Institute

Laurie Goodman is a vice president at the Urban Institute and codirector of its Housing Finance Policy Center, which provides policymakers with data-driven analyses of housing finance policy issues that they can depend on for relevance, accuracy, and independence. Goodman spent 30 years as an analyst and research department manager on Wall Street. From 2008 to 2013, she was a senior managing director at Amherst Securities Group LP, a boutique broker-dealer specializing in securitized products, where her strategy effort became known for its analysis of housing policy issues. From 1993 to 2008, Goodman was head of global fixed income research and manager of US securitized products research at UBS and predecessor firms, which were ranked first by Institutional Investor for 11 straight years. Before that, she held research and portfolio management positions at several Wall Street firms. She began her career as a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Goodman was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Hall of Fame in 2009.
Goodman serves on the board of directors of MFA Financial and Arch Capital Group and is an adviser to Amherst Capital Management, a member of Morningstar Credit Ratings Regulatory Governance Board, and a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Financial Advisory Roundtable. She has published more than 200 journal articles and has coauthored and coedited five books. Goodman has a BA in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and an AM and PhD in economics from Stanford University.

Sam Hammond, Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy, Niskanen Center

Samuel Hammond is the Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. He previously worked as an economist for the Government of Canada specializing in rural economic development, and as a graduate research fellow for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research focuses on the effectiveness of cash transfers in alleviating poverty, and how free markets can be complemented by robust systems of social insurance.

Jane Horvath, Principal, Horvath Health Policy
Jane Horvath, MHSA, brings years of experience in health care financing, coverage, and management to her clients. Jane helps clients understand and anticipate the changing US market and policy landscape. She has worked extensively with state and federal officials, non-profit organizations, foundations, and commercial entities, such as MACPAC, NASHP, and 3D Communications. She has conducted quantitative and qualitative research and has written extensively on health care issues, particularly pharmaceuticals.

As Executive Director of Health Policy and Reimbursement at Merck for a decade, she identified the business implications of state and federal policy developments including the Medicare prescription drug program, Medicaid, health information technology, evolving data use policy, access and methods, 340B, and reformed commercial markets.

Prior to Merck, Jane was Deputy Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, conducting research and devising policy on care management and financing for people with chronic conditions.

Jane also held a series of high profile government positions. This included work as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation in the US Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for legislative policy for all health-related areas, including Medicare, Medicaid, and prescription drug pricing. Jane earned a Masters of Health Services Administration from the George Washington University.

Taylor Jo Isenberg, Managing Director, Economic Security Project

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Taylor Jo Isenberg is the Managing Director of the Economic Security Project. She was previously the Senior Advisor to the CEO & President and Vice President of the National Network at the Roosevelt Institute, an organization working to redefine the rules that guide our social and economic realities.

She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for Scalawag Magazine, a publication advancing social justice through the South’s diverse thinkers, writers and activists. She was a Forbes 30 under 30 for Law and Policy in 2015 and Fusion 30 under 30 Women Shaping Politics in 2016. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elisabeth Jacobs, Senior Director for Family Economic Security, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
In her role at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a research and grant-making institution dedicated to accelerating research on whether and how economic inequality impacts growth and stability, Elisabeth Jacobs oversees a broad array of work exploring the role of family economic wellbeing in creating stable, strong, broadly-shared economic growth.

Prior to her current role, Elisabeth was responsible for building Equitable Growth’s academic research programs from the ground up, including the organization’s competitive grantmaking, off-cycle grants, commissions, Junior Fellows program, and institutional partnerships. Her own research agenda focuses on economic inequality and mobility, family economic security, poverty, employment, social policy, social insurance, and the politics of inequality. Her writing and commentary have been featured on National Public Radio, and in the Economist, the New York Times, the New Republic, the Atlantic, and other major media outlets.

Prior to joining Equitable Growth, she was a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a co-founder of Brookings’ popular Social Mobility Memos blog. Earlier in her career, she served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress, and as an advisor to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She holds a doctorate and a master’s from Harvard University, where she was a Fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, and a bachelor’s from Yale University, where she served on the Board of Directors of Dwight Hall, the Center for Public Service and Social Justice.

Josie Kalipeni, Director of Policy and Federal Affairs, Caring Across Generations

Josie Kalipeni's expertise includes grassroots and faith-based organizing, civic and consumer engagement with a focus on millennial engagement, social justice campaign development, health equity, and policy development and analysis. She initially worked in family crisis case management and social work, experiencing the hardships of families navigating broken systems. This led her to advocacy and policy development work. She earned a B.A. in sociology with a concentration in political science and religious studies from the University of Illinois and her master’s degree is in social justice and community development from Loyola University in Chicago.

Katie Kirchner, National Director, Roosevelt Network

An alumnus of the Network, Katie Kirchner’s academic and professional experience has largely been focused on the intersection of sociology and education. As National Director, Kirchner is expanding the work on diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy with priorities for network growth and policy work through the management of Network team members. Previously at Roosevelt, she was a program manager for chapter growth and membership development where she managed the Student Leadership Team, 10 Ideas, the annual Hyde Park conference, and oversaw the national cohort of students who do organizing and base-building across the country.

Cathy Koch, EY Americas Tax Policy Leader
Cathy Koch develops tax policy practices in Canada and Latin America, and links them with the US services and the tax policy and controversy network across the globe. She provides clients guidance on US Senate legislative developments, as well as US House and Senate Leadership and Administration perspectives on tax policy.

Prior to joining EY, Koch served as Chief Policy Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader for Tax and Economics. In this role, she led all tax and economic policy initiatives for the leader’s office and was central to strategy and communications on a broad spectrum of issues. She is familiar with the perspectives on tax reform in the tax-writing committees, and the science of revenue estimation. Koch earned a Ph.D. in economics from the Georgetown University.

Renée Landers, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School

Renée M. Landers (Vice Chair) is Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School and teaches administrative law, constitutional law, and health law. She is the Faculty Director of the school’s Health and Biomedical Law Concentration. President of the Boston Bar Association in 2003-2004, she was the first woman of color and the first law professor to serve in that position. She has worked in private practice and served as Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of health and Human Services and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration. In August 2016, Landers was elected to a one-year term as Chair of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association in August 2016 after having served as Chair-Elect (2015 – 2016), Vice Chair (2014 – 2015), and Secretary (2011-2014). She also serves as a member of the board of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. She was a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct and served as Vice Chair of the Commission from 2009 to 2010. She served on the task force that drafted the revised Code of Judicial Conduct effective in 2016. Currently, she is a member of the Committee on Judicial Ethics. Previously, she was a member of the Supreme Judicial Court’s committees studying gender bias and racial and ethnic bias in the courts. She is the author of articles on the potential for Massachusetts health care reform initiatives to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care and aspects of the Affordable Care Act. A member of NASI since 2008, Landers was a member of the Academy’s study panels on Strengthening Medicare’s Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and on Health Insurance Exchanges, and co-chaired the 21st Academy Conference on ''Social Insurance, Fiscal Responsibility, and Economic Growth''. She is a regular commentator on legal developments in constitutional law, health law, and administrative law for media organizations. Landers has served as the president of the boards of Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Shady Hill School, the Harvard Board of Overseers, and has also served on the board of WGBH and the Board of Overseers of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She has received awards from Radcliffe College, Boston College Law School, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network.

Deborah Ojeda-Leitner, Science and Technology James Marshall Public Policy Fellow

Deborah Ojeda-Leitner, PhD, MA, was named as the 2018-2019 James Marshall Public Policy Fellow by the Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). Ojeda-Leitner currently is working with the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security in the Office of Senator Bernard Sanders. In this role, Ojeda-Leitner will be working with senior staff to address a range of pertinent health policy issues, including: health equity; Medicare for All; opioids; dental and oral health; mental health and substance abuse; drug pricing reform; increased support for community health centers and health workforce development program; and other pivotal health policy issues that arise over the course of the next year.

Prior to her tenure in Senator Sanders’ office, Ojeda-Leitner completed her PhD in Community Psychology at Wichita State University (WSU). Before graduate school, however, she proudly served as an AmeriCorps member in South Bronx and was an advocate for community health and health equity. In addition, she was an evaluator at WSU Community Engagement Institute’s Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (CARE). Her primary focus at CARE was collaborating with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services to evaluate home- and community-based services to ensure that they were in compliance with federal regulations.

Ojeda-Leitner’s interests and past experiences include health, social justice, equality, social change, strategic planning, research, evaluation, prevention, community-based interventions, and advocacy. She finished her dissertation on healthcare-related discrimination within Wichita’s gender and sexual minority community, with the aim to improve cultural readiness within healthcare settings.

In the future, she hopes to follow her passion for and expand her expertise in healthcare, health minority equity, intersectionality, social justice, and public policy.

Helaine Olen, Writer, Washington Post

Helaine Olen is a regular contributor to the Washington Post’s PostPartisan blog and the author of “Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry” and co-author of “The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated.” Her journalism and commentary have also been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Slate, the Nation, and the Los Angeles Times, and she’s appeared on both The Daily Show and Frontline to discuss her work on public policy issues, including retirement. She serves on the advisory board of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. You can find her on Twitter @helaineolen

Hans Riemer, Councilmember At-Large, Montgomery County Maryland

Hans Riemer serves as an At-Large Member of the Montgomery County Council, where he represents more than 1 million residents in an inclusive, metropolitan community. He has dedicated his career to public service and his dream of creating opportunity for all people to achieve their potential. As a Councilmember, Riemer works towards his vision by advocating for public education and public transportation, early childhood programs, libraries, recreation, human services, housing and economic development. He serves as Chairman of the Council's Planning, Housing & Economic Development Committee. He also serves on the Transportation & Environment Committee. Riemer has a passion for progressive change that comes from his roots in Oakland, California, and the commitment to social justice that he learned from his parents, who were active in the community. His background in public policy and political engagement includes service as Senior Advisor for AARP; National Youth Vote Director for Barack Obama; Political Director for Rock the Vote; and Social Security campaign director.

Aliya Robinson, Executive Director, Retirement Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Aliya Robinson is the Executive Director of Retirement Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She responsible for developing, promoting and publicizing the Chamber’s policy on employer-provided retirement plans, nonqualified deferred compensation, and Social Security. Robinson regularly meets with members of Congress, the administration, and regulatory agencies to promote the Chamber’s retirement policy and represents the organization on the steering committee of several national coalitions. She has led the Chamber’s efforts on several pieces of retirement legislation, most notably the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and the Multiemployer Reform Act of 2014. In her role, Robinson has testified before Congress, the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board. She frequently gives presentations to various organizations on retirement policies. Robinson is a member of the Tax Coalition, the ERISA Roundtable, and Qualified Plans Subcommittee Co-chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the ABA Labor and Employment Section of the American Bar Association. In 2018, Robinson was admitted into the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, Inc. Robinson is admitted to the New York State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar. She is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where she also received a Master of Laws in Taxation. Robinson received a B.A. in economics and African studies from Yale University.

Kathleen Romig, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

At the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Kathleen Romig works on Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and other budget issues. Romig previously worked at the Social Security Administration, Social Security Advisory Board, and Congressional Research Service (CRS). Romig is a past Presidential Management Fellow who completed a rotation at the Office of Management and Budget. Romig was Michigan State University’s first recipient of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, established in honor of former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, who served as chairman of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. The program allowed her to pursue her master's degree in social policy at the University College Cork. Romig was elected to the Academy in 2009.

H. Luke Shaefer, Associate Professor, School of Social Work and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Director, Poverty Solutions, University of Michigan

Luke Shaefer is the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, a new interdisciplinary initiative that aims to become a leader in informing, identifying and testing new strategies for the prevention and alleviation of poverty in Michigan, the nation and the world. His recent book with Kathryn Edin, $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, was named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2015 by the New York Times Book Review, and won the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, among other awards. Shaefer’s research on poverty, social insurance and social welfare policy in the United States has been published in top peer-reviewed academic journals such as Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and the American Journal of Public Health, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, among other sources. Shaefer has presented his research at the White House and before numerous federal agencies, has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and has consulted with a number of the nation’s largest social service providers as well as numerous community-based agencies. His work has been cited in theNew York Times, the Washington Post, National Review, The Atlantic, Vox, the Los Angeles Times, and Huffington Post, among other media outlets, and he has been featured on such programs as Marketplace and CNBC’s Nightly Business Report. Shaefer received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in social service administration at the University of Chicago. He was elected to the Academy in 2013.

Shelly Steward, Research Manager, Future of Work Initiative, Aspen Institute

Shelly Steward is an economic sociologist focusing on the changing nature of work in American society. An expert in labor, culture, and public policy, she holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines how people understand their position in the labor market and the economy more broadly. Her dissertation examined experiences of precarious and insecure work in the oil and tech industries. She has been a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, a Kinder Scholar at Rice University, and an Assessment and Evaluation Fellow at UC Berkeley. Her research has been published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, the Journal of Consumer Culture, and the Berkeley Journal of Sociology, and she has presented her work across the US and internationally. Prior to becoming a sociologist, Steward taught middle school science on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota as a Teach for America corps member. She holds an AB from Harvard College.

Yulya Truskinovsky, Assistant Professor of Economics at Wayne State University

Yulya Truskinovsky is an assistant professor of economics at Wayne State University who studies labor, aging, and health, with a focus on the economics of caregiving. Her ongoing work examines the indirect costs of informal care through two related questions: First, how does informal care respond to price and other market-based incentives? Second, what is the causal effect of caregiving on the employment outcomes of older Americans in the context of a rapidly aging population? Recent work in this area considers another source of non-clinical care for the elderly: home health aides. She is also interested in how early- and mid-life experiences, including fertility, marriage, and caregiving, impact work and health related outcomes at older ages, and in the social insurance aspects of public policies such as Medicaid and paid family leave. Truskinovsky holds a PhD from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and was previously a Sloan Fellow at Harvard University.

Benjamin Veghte, Project Director, Academy Study Panel on Caregiving

Benjamin W. Veghte is Research Director at Caring Across Generations. From 2015-18, he led policy work at the National Academy of Social Insurance as Vice President for Policy. There, he launched and serves as Project Director of the study panel, “Designing State-Based Social Insurance Programs for Paid Leave, Affordable Child Care, and Long-Term Services and Supports,” chaired by Marc Cohen and Heidi Hartmann. He was formerly Research Director at Social Security Works. He is a member of the Scholars Strategy Network and the National Academy of Social Insurance. His research explores how capitalist democracies can effectively mitigate social inequality, enhance opportunity, and enable individuals and families to balance work and caregiving. Veghte has published on issues related to long-term care, paid family and medical leave, Social Security, retirement security, Medicare, health insurance, social insurance, and housing policy. He holds a Ph.D. in European intellectual history from the University of Chicago and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He taught comparative social policy and comparative politics as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Bremen, Germany, until 2008, and served as a social policy consultant for the European Union. Since then, Veghte worked as Research Associate at the National Academy of Social Insurance and as Executive Director of the Scholars Strategy Network at Harvard University.

Dorian Warren, President, Center for Community Change

Dorian T. Warren is the newly-named President of the Center for Community Change (CCC). He is currently the vice-president of CCC and the president of the Center for Community Change Action (CCCA). He is also a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Co-Chair of the Economic Security Project.

A progressive scholar, organizer and media personality, Warren has worked to advance racial, economic and social justice for more than two decades. He previously taught for more than 10 years at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he was Co-Director of the Columbia University Program on Labor Law and Policy. Warren also worked at MSNBC where he was a contributor, fill-in host for Melissa Harris Perry and Now with Alex Wagner, and host and executive producer of Nerding Out on MSNBC’s digital platform.

He currently serves on several boards including Working Partnerships USA, the Workers Lab, the National Employment Law Project, Capital & Main and The Nation Magazine Editorial Board. As a commentator on public affairs, Warren has appeared regularly on television and radio including NBC Nightly News, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, BET, BBC, NPR, Bloomberg, & NY1, among other outlets. He has also written for The Nation, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Salon, Washington Post, New York Times, Medium, Ebony, and Boston Review. Warren is co-author of The Hidden Rules of Race: Barriers to an Inclusive Economy (Cambridge University Press) and co-editor of Race and American Political Development (Routledge). In 2013, he was included on the list of NBC’s the Grio’s 100 People Making History Today.

Dorian Warren received his B.A. from the University of Illinois and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He is a long-suffering Cubs fan who grew up on the South Side of Chicago.

More speakers to be announced soon. Stay tuned!

Ramsey L. Alwin is the Director of Thought Leadership for Financial Resilience in the Office of Policy, Research, and International Affairs at AARP. Alwin’s work focuses on longevity trends and economic security issues, especially as they relate to older adults. She was instrumental in formulating the Elder Economic Security Index for measuring the daily cost-of-living for an individual 65 and older of a given housing status, household composition, and location. Alwin has worked with federal agency officials, Congressional staff, local agency authorities, and as a spokesperson for print and broadcast media. Prior to her position at AARP, Alwin was Vice President of Economic Security for the National Council on Aging (NCOA). At NCOA, she directed the Economic Security Initiative, a national multi-site demonstration project to help struggling seniors tap community resources, and the Home Equity Initiative, which educated older homeowners on the wise use of their home equity. Her efforts resulted in the creation of Savvy Saving Seniors® financial education toolkits and an online decision support tool, EconomicCheckUp®. Alwin served on the Workplace Flexibility 2010 Task Force on Phased Retirement at Georgetown University’s Law Center and the Advisory Board of the U.S. Administration on Aging. She has a B.A. in social policy from Simmons College. Alwin was elected to the Academy in 2010.

Jeff N. Cruz is a Senior Advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) on the Senate Budget Committee, working as a senior policy analyst for Social Security. Previously, he was Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement at the White House, where he served as the main point-of-contact to outside organizations on healthcare, Social Security, and senior issues. He was Executive Director of Latinos for a Secure Retirement, a coalition of national Latino organizations working to protect and strengthen Social Security, Medicare, and the pension system. He was also a fellow at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Initiative (CHCI). Cruz’s work with House Democratic leadership includes a role as lead staffer on aging issues for Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and as senior policy advisor for U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. In 2008, he took leave from the Senate to work for President Obama's election campaign as the Deputy Director for Senior Outreach in the Chicago headquarters and then as the Florida State Seniors Vote Director. He was a senior policy analyst for Social Security and Medicare Part D programs for the Campaign for America’s Future, where he wrote several policy papers on Social Security and Medicare Part D. Cruz holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Cruz was elected to the Academy in 2010.

Walt Dawson is the Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California - San Francisco. He was previously Director of Research and Analytics at the Oregon Health Care Association, a statewide, nonprofit trade association that represents more than 1,000 organizations and 90 percent of long term care providers in the state. He is an occasional lecturer in the Oregon Health & Science University – Portland State University School of Public Health. Dawson is on the Public Policy Committee of the American Society on Aging, the Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s Association, Oregon Chapter, and the Editorial Advisory Board of Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging. Most recently, he was appointed by Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown to the Governor’s Commission on Senior Services. In 2015, Dawson was a Fulbright Scholar to Canada, where he held the Visiting Research Chair in Governance and Public Policy at McMaster University. Previously, he worked in various policy and research positions in Washington, DC, including at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Health and Ageing Programme of the Atlantic Philanthropies. Dawson holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and a D. Phil. in social policy from the University of Oxford, where his research focused on long-term services and supports policy in the United States. He was a Visiting Scholar at the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2011. He was elected to the Academy in 2014.

Manasi Deshpande is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago Department of Economics. Her research interests are empirical public finance and labor economics, with a focus on the effects of social insurance and public assistance programs and their interaction with labor markets. She received her Ph.D. in economics from MIT and graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in economics, mathematics, and Plan II Honors (humanities). She has worked as a policy advisor for the White House National Economic Council and as a research assistant for the Hamilton Project at Brookings. Desphande received the John Heinz Dissertation Award from the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2016. She was elected to the Academy in 2018.

Kathryn Anne Edwards is an associate economist at the RAND Corporation. Her research spans diverse areas of public policy, including the financial resources available to unemployed households, the role of Social Security in wealth inequality, and the sources of health insurance for disabled workers. Prior to entering a PhD program, Edwards worked at the Economic Policy Institute. While there, she published numerous articles. She also authored The Kids Aren't Alright: A Labor Market Analysis of Young Workers (2010), which discussed the severity of the unemployment crisis facing young adults, its historical context, and the implications for their future wages and skills. She authored The Young Person's Guide to Social Security, published by the National Academy of Social Insurance (2012). Her graduate experience includes work as a National Institute of Aging Trainee at the Center for Demography and Human Ecology, a graduate fellow of the Institute for Research on Poverty, and a summer fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago through the Committee for the Study of Women in the Economics Profession. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2016. Edwards was elected to the Academy in 2015.

Josephine Kalipeni is Director of Policy and Partnerships for Caring Across Generations. Her expertise includes grassroots and faith-based organizing, civic and consumer engagement with a focus on millennial engagement, social justice campaign development, health equity, and policy development and analysis. She initially worked in family crisis case management and social work, experiencing the hardships of families navigating broken systems. This led her to advocacy and policy development work. She earned a B.A. in sociology with a concentration in political science and religious studies from the University of Illinois and her master’s degree is in social justice and community development from Loyola University in Chicago.

Alex Lawson is Executive Director of Social Security Works, a non-profit group focused on ways to protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations while maintaining Social Security as a vehicle of social justice. The group is the convening member of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign — a coalition made up of over 340 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans. Lawson was the first employee of Social Security Works, when he served as the communications director. He led a major communications and messaging project now used by many advocates, congressional staff, and members of Congress. He has managed the creation of a multitude of fact-sheets and reports, including 50 state reports detailing the importance of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Lawson is also a co-owner and producer at We Act Radio, a media corporation that combines broadcast and news media to deliver shows in the formats people use most. We Act’s original programs can be found streaming at WeActRadio.com, on YouTube, on AM and FM radio stations around the country, and on iTunes. Lawson has previously held positions with Media Matters for America, Campaign for America’s Future, High 5 Consulting, and others. Mr. Lawson received his M.P.P. from George Washington University. He has been a Member of the Academy since 2012.

Kathleen Romig is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), where she works on Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and other budget issues. Romig previously worked at the Social Security Administration, Social Security Advisory Board, and Congressional Research Service (CRS). Romig is a past Presidential Management Fellow who completed a rotation at the Office of Management and Budget. Romig was Michigan State University’s first recipient of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, established in honor of former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell, who served as chairman of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. The program allowed her to pursue her master's degree in social policy at the University College Cork. Romig was elected to the Academy in 2009.

H. Luke Shaefer, an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, is the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, a new interdisciplinary initiative that aims to become a leader in informing, identifying and testing new strategies for the prevention and alleviation of poverty in Michigan, the nation and the world. His recent book with Kathryn Edin, $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, was named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2015 by the New York Times Book Review, and won the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, among other awards. Shaefer’s research on poverty, social insurance and social welfare policy in the United States has been published in top peer-reviewed academic journals such as Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and the American Journal of Public Health, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, among other sources. Shaefer has presented his research at the White House and before numerous federal agencies, has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and has consulted with a number of the nation’s largest social service providers as well as numerous community-based agencies. His work has been cited in the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Review, The Atlantic, Vox, the Los Angeles Times, and Huffington Post, among other media outlets, and he has been featured on such programs as Marketplace and CNBC’s Nightly Business Report. Shaefer received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in social service administration at the University of Chicago. He was elected to the Academy in 2013.

Elisa A. Walker is a Social Insurance Specialist in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of Research, Demonstration, and Employment Support. Walker previously served as a consultant and special assistant to SSA’s Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy. Before joining SSA in 2015, she was an Income Security Policy Analyst at the National Academy of Social Insurance, where she analyzed Social Security financing, policy options, and disability insurance. Walker co-authored several Academy publications, including Americans Make Hard Choices on Social Security: A Survey with Trade-Off Analysis. Walker received the Frances Perkins Center’s 2015 Open Door Award, given annually to an emerging leader in social justice and economic security, and a 2016 Commissioner’s Team Award. She holds a B.A. in sociology and Spanish from the University of Mary Washington, and has been a member of the Academy since 2015.