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Members of the Board

Kim Hildred, Chair (09/16 - 09/22)

Appointed by the House on September 27, 2016.

Kim Hildred currently serves as President of Hildred Consulting LLC. In early 2015, Ms. Hildred retired from the U.S House of Representatives after serving 17 years as Staff Director of the Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security. There she assisted Committee Members in the development and passage of legislation to strengthen Social Security retirement, survivors, and disability programs, as well as in the oversight of these programs. Ms. Hildred's efforts contributed to the Committee holding over 120 hearings and the signing of 10 bills into law, including the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (P.L.106-170), the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act of 2000 (P.L.106-182), and the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (P.L.108-203). Her prior service includes three years deciding Social Security disability claims for the States of Kansas and Wisconsin, followed by 10 years of increasingly responsible positions in managing Social Security disability programs in the Chicago and Philadelphia regions of the Social Security Administration, including federal disability hearing officer, and disability program administrator. Ms. Hildred has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Waynesburg University and a Master of Science in Education degree from Duquesne University. Current term of office: September 2016 to September 2022.

Henry J. Aaron, PhD (09/14 - 09/20)

Nominated February 14, 2011 and confirmed September 8, 2014 (first term). Renominated January 6, 2014 and confirmed September 8, 2014 (second term). 

Dr. Henry J. Aaron is the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution Economic Studies Program, which he directed from 1990 through 1996. Dr. Aaron previously taught at the University of Maryland and at Harvard University. He served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and chaired the 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security. He is a member and vice-chair of the District of Columbia Health Benefits Exchange. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the advisory committee of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He was a member of the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers and Panel of Health Advisers, the visiting committees of the Harvard Medical and Dental Schools and Department of Economics, and the boards of directors of Abt Associates, Georgetown University, and the College Retirement Equity Fund.  Dr. Aaron was a founding member, Vice-President, and board chair of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has been Vice-President and member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association, was President of the Association of Public Policy and Management.  He received a B.A. from U.C.L.A in Political Science and Economics and holds an M.A. in Russian Regional Studies and a PhD in economics from Harvard University. Current term of office: September 2014 to September 2020.

Nancy J. Altman (10/17 - 09/23)

M Warshawsky

Appointed by the House on September 26, 2017.

Nancy J. Altman has a forty-year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. She is President of Social Security Works and Chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition. She is the author of The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), and co-author of Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn’t Going Broke and How Expanding It Will Help Us All (The New Press, 2015). From 1983 to 1989, Ms. 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.  Ms. Altman chairs the Board of Directors of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of beneficiary rights. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund and the Economic Opportunity Institute.  In the mid-1980’s, she was on the organizing committee and the first Board of Directors of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Ms. Altman has an A.B. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Current term of office: October 2017 to September 2023.

Jagadeesh Gokhale, PhD (11/09 - 09/21)

Appointed by the Senate on November 19, 2009 (first term); Reappointed October 5, 2015 (Second term). 

Dr. Jagadeesh Gokhale is the Director of Special Projects at Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative (Penn Wharton PPI). Prior to joining PPI, Dr. Gokhale was a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Earlier he worked at the American Enterprise Institute as a visiting scholar (2003), the U.S. Treasury Department as a consultant (2002), and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland as a senior economic advisor (1990-2003). An economist by training, his main research fields are macro and public economics with a special focus on the effects of fiscal policy on future generations. In 2008, he served as a member of the Task Force on Sustainability Issues for the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. Dr. Gokhale has written extensively on policy issues including Social Security and Medicare reform, national saving, private insurance, financial planning, wealth inequality, generational accounting, and public intergenerational transfers and he has testified several times before Congress on these topics. He has published several papers in the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics and in publications of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Cleveland Federal Reserve; in the US Budget report’s Analytical Perspectives; and in newspapers and online media such as the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, the Washington Post, American Spectator, and Forbes. Dr. Gokhale is a co-author of Fiscal and Generational Imbalances that revealed the US fiscal imbalance to be in the tens of trillions of dollars. In 2010 he published Social Security: A Fresh Look at Policy Alternatives which constructs a different method for determining solvency of the Social Security trust funds. First term of office: November 2009 to September 2015. Current term of office: October 2015 to September 2021.

 

Robert Joondeph (10/18-09/24)

Appointed by the Senate on October 1, 2018.

Bob Joondeph, J.D. served as the Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) for over 30 years.  DRO is the Protection and Advocacy office for Oregon, promoting and defending the legal and civil rights of Oregonians with disabilities through legal-based advocacy.  Mr. Joondeph came to Oregon as a VISTA volunteer attorney in 1976.  Throughout his career, Mr. Joondeph has represented individuals with disabilities in state and federal courts, agencies and legislatures. He has served as a member of numerous state policy groups in Oregon including the Health Evidence Review Commission, Health Services Commission, Health Fund Board, Mental Health Planning and Management Advisory Council, State Rehabilitation Commission, Governor’s Task Force on Brain Injury and the Council on Developmental Disabilities.  He is the recipient of the Oregon State Bar Public Service Award, Oregon Disabilities Commission Advocate of the Year Award, Brain Injury Alliance of Oregon Advocacy Award, and the Oregon Civil Rights Leadership Award.  Mr. Joondeph is a graduate of Case Western Reserve Law School and Brown University.  Current term of office: October 2018 to September 2024.

 

Current Nominees to the Board



During the 115th Congress, the president nominated the following individuals to serve on the Board: 

Michael J. Astrue of Massachusetts, to be a Member of the Social Security Advisory Board for the remainder of a six-year term expiring September 30, 2022. 

Jason J. Fichtner, PhD, of the District of Columbia, to be a Member of the Social Security Advisory Board for a six-year term expiring September 30, 2024.  

 

 

Former Board Members

 

Democratic Senate Appointments

Lori Hansen

(10/94 - 09/00)

 
  • Appointed August 19, 1994
  • Policy Analyst at the National Academy of Social Insurance
  • Former Technical Assistant to Social Security Administrator Robert Ball

David Podoff

(10/00 - 09/06)

 
  • Appointed October 4, 2000
  • Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at the Baruch College of the City University of New York
  • Former Minority Staff Director and Chief Economist for the Senate Committee on Finance

Marsha Katz

(11/06 - 09/12; Acting Chair 2011-12)
  • Appointed November 14, 2006
  • Project Director at the University of Montana Rural Institute in Missoula
  • Former Vice President of the Association for Community Advocacy in Ann Arbor, Michigan
 
Bernadette Franks-Ongoy

(01/13-09/18)		  
  • Appointed January 24, 2013
  • Executive Director of Disability Rights Montana
  • Former President of the National Disability Rights Network

 

Republican Senate Appointments

Carolyn Weaver

(10/94 - 09/97)

 
  • Appointed September 26, 1994
  • Resident Scholar and Director of the Social Security and Pension Project at the American Enterprise Institute
  • Former Senior Advisor to the 1983 National Commission on Social Security Reform

Sylvester Schieber

(01/98 - 09/09; Chair 2006-09)
  • Appointed January 27, 1998 (first term); Reappointed October 2, 2003 (second term)
  • Director of the Research and Information Center at Watson Wyatt Worldwide
  • Former Director of Research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute

 

Democratic House Appointments

Martha Keys

(11/94 - 09/05)
  • Appointed November 29, 1994 (first term); Reappointed September 30, 1999 (second term)
  • Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of Kansas
  • Former Special Advisor to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and Assistant Secretary of Education

Barbara Kennelly

(01/06 - 09/17)

Appointed January 18, 2006 (first term). Reappointed March 1, 2012 (second term)
Former President, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1st District of Connecticut

 

Republican House Appointments

Arthur "Pete" Singleton

(11/94 - 10/96)

 
  • Appointed November 29, 1994
  • Resigned after appointment to Chief of Staff for the Ways and Means Committee
  • Staff member of the Ways and Means Committee
  • Served as a Marine in World War II

Jo Anne Barnhart 

(03/97 - 11/01)
  • Appointed March 12, 1997 (first term); Reappointed October 9, 1998 (second term)
  • Political and public policy consultant to state and local governments on welfare and social services
  • Former Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services
 


Dorcas R. Hardy

(04/02-09/16)
  
  • Appointed April 9, 2002 (first term); reappointed November 16, 2004 (second term); reappointed September 29, 2010 (third term)
  • President of D.R. Hardy & Associates
  • Former Social Security Administration Commissioner from 1986 to 1989

 

Presidential Appointments

Harlan Mathews

(01/96 - 10/97; Acting Chair 1996-97)

 
  • Appointed during Senate recess January 26, 1996
  • Resigned October 1997
  • Former U.S. Senator representing Tennessee
  • Previously Secretary of the Cabinet for Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter and Tenneessee's State Treasurer

Gerald Shea

(01/96 – 11/97; 10/00 – 09/04)

 
  • Appointed during Senate recess January 26, 1996 (first term); Nominated October 11, 2000 and confirmed October 24, 2000 (second term)
  • Assistant to the president for Government Affairs at the AFL-CIO
  • Serves as a public representative on the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations
  • Founding Board member of the Foundation for Accountability

William Brooks

(01/96 – 09/96)

 
  • Appointed during Senate recess January 26, 1996
  • Director and Chairman of the Compensation Committee at the United American Healthcare Corporation
  • Former Trust Manager at the United Investors Realty Trust

Stanford Ross

(09/97 – 09/02; Chair 1997-02)

 
  • Nominated September 23, 1997 and confirmed October 30, 1997
  • Partner at law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP
  • Former Commissioner of Social Security and Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds

Mark Weinberger

(10/00 – 05/01)

 
  • Nominated October 11, 2000 and confirmed October 24, 2000
  • Resigned after appointment to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy

  • Former Director of the U.S. National Tax Practice for Ernst & Young LLP                

Hal Daub

(01/02 – 09/06; Chair 2002-06)