Organization and Staffing

Descriptions of components and staff biographies:

Office of the Deputy Commissioner

The Deputy Commissioner for Policy heads the Office of Policy, sets the agenda of the office, represents the office at the policymaking levels of the Administration, and is the main point of contact between the office and the policy community. The Assistant Deputy Commissioner manages the 145-person career staff and ensures that the staff's work is timely, complete, and objective.

The Office of Policy comprises three main components: the Office of Retirement Policy (ORP), the Office of Disability and Income Assistance Policy (ODIAP), and the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics (ORES). ORES is the largest component and is divided into six divisions. Staff members from two or three components often work together as a team to carry out specific short- or long-term projects.

Deputy Commissioner—Paul S. Hewitt. Paul Hewitt was named Deputy Commissioner for Policy in June 2003. Previously, he directed the Global Aging Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he worked with the blue-ribbon Commission on Global Aging to assess the global implications of the simultaneous aging of the industrial nations. From 1990 to 1997, Mr. Hewitt was executive director of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, where he won national acclaim for his computerized budget tracking systems. He began his career in 1979 as a presidential management intern and served in the Office of Management and Budget before moving to Capitol Hill, where he became staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations. In 1985, he and Senator David Durenberger (R-Minn.) founded Americans for Generational Equity, the nation's first advocacy organization for the interests of younger and future generations. He has testified many times before Congress and has been a frequent guest on radio and television shows, including Face the Nation, the Today Show, the PBS Newshour, Larry King Live, and Crossfire. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, and other leading publications. Mr. Hewitt has a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.P.A. from American University.

Assistant Deputy Commissioner—Paul N. Van de Water. Paul Van de Water was appointed Associate Commissioner for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics in 1999 and Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Policy in January 2001. From 1979 to 1981, he served as director of the agency's Office of Policy Analysis. Between his two tours at SSA, he held managerial positions at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). At the time of his departure, he was Assistant Director for Budget Analysis, CBO's senior career official. Mr. Van de Water has written extensively on Social Security, Medicare, and governmental finance and has testified before several congressional committees. He holds an A.B. with highest honors in economics from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Executive Officer—Serge Harrison. Before becoming Executive Officer for the Office of Policy, Serge Harrison served for 10 years as Executive Officer for SSA's Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics. He began his SSA career in 1977 as an analyst in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Branch of what is now known as the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs (OLCA). His career turned from SSI legislative issues to the administrative and management arena in 1984, when he agreed to serve as a staff assistant to the office director. Subsequently, he worked on the staff of the Deputy Commissioner for Policy and External Affairs overseeing the budget and personnel areas. Mr. Harrison is a native of Naples, Italy, and came to the United States in 1959. He holds a B.A. in psychology from Towson University and is a Vietnam veteran.

Office of Retirement Policy

The Office of Retirement Policy provides policy analysis and development in the areas of Social Security reform and Social Security retirement and survivors benefits. ORP works closely with ORES and ODIAP to conduct in-depth analysis of reform proposals, focusing on their economic and distributional effects, financial implications for Social Security and the federal budget, and administrative issues. In addition, ORP prepares short-turnaround analyses on critical issues for the Commissioner and other policymakers. ORP works with the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs and the Office of the Chief Actuary to prepare material for hearings and with the Office of Communications to prepare speeches for the Commissioner and other informational material on major policies.

Associate Commissioner—Andrew G. Biggs. Andrew G. Biggs was appointed Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy in 2003. Before joining the Social Security Administration, he served as a staff member for the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, a Social Security analyst at the Cato Institute, and a staff member to the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland; a master's from Cambridge University; and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Deputy Associate Commissioner—David Weaver. David Weaver was named Deputy Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy in February 2004. Prior to joining ORP, he worked for 12 years in the Office of Policy's Division of Economic Research. Most of his research has focused on the economic well-being of the Social Security beneficiary population. Mr. Weaver holds a Bachelor's degree from Furman University and a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University.

Office of Disability and Income Assistance Policy

The Office of Disability and Income Assistance Policy develops options and provides policy analysis to improve the information base for the development of policy for the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs. The office conducts broad analysis of current policy and proposals affecting eligibility, income assistance, and disability-related social insurance. It analyzes the interaction of demographic and economic trends with SSA policies, especially those relating to the impact and expenditures of the disability program.

Associate Commissioner—Vacant.

Deputy Associate Commissioner—Richard Balkus. Richard Balkus was appointed Deputy Associate Commissioner for the Office of Disability and Income Assistance Policy in February 2004. Before joining the Office of Policy in 1999, Mr. Balkus served as the Field Management Officer to the Chief Administrative Law Judge in the Office of Hearings and Appeals. He started his career with the Social Security Administration in 1979 as a claims representative in the Culver City, California, field office. Since joining the Office of Policy, Mr. Balkus has worked primarily on disability issues and policies affecting the Supplemental Security Income program. He received his B.A. from Whittier College in Whittier, California, and his M.A. from the University of Southern California. Both degrees are in Political Science.

Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics

The Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics conducts research to study the effects of Social Security and SSI, and proposed changes in those programs, on individuals and the economy. Much of the research focuses on the disabled population, work incentives, and disability assessment tools. ORES is also responsible for evaluating the effects of major new initiatives and demonstration projects. ORES statistical programs provide data on Social Security and SSI beneficiaries, payment amounts, covered workers, taxable earnings, disability status, and other program indicators. As a federal statistical agency, ORES is responsible for ensuring the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of statistical data and participates in several interagency statistical programs and projects.

Associate Commissioner—Edward J. DeMarco. Edward DeMarco joined the Social Security Administration in October 2003. Prior to joining SSA, Mr. DeMarco was the Director of the Office of Financial Institutions Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing policy analysis and development on a wide range of financial institutions-related issues, including deposit insurance reform, pensions and federal pension insurance, terrorism-risk insurance, government-sponsored enterprises, bank powers and regulation, and risk-based capital requirements for financial institutions. Before joining the Treasury Department in 1994, Mr. DeMarco was a senior financial economist at the then U.S. General Accounting Office. He has a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland.

Deputy Associate Commissioner—Susan Grad. Susan Grad has worked in the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics and its predecessors since 1972, with a brief stint at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and six months on the Hill as a LEGIS Fellow. At SSA, she had increasingly responsible positions, beginning as an analyst in the Division of Retirement and Survivor Studies, later directing the Program Analysis Staff and the International Studies Staff, and becoming the Deputy Associate Commissioner in 1995. Ms. Grad is best known for a data series she has produced since 1976 on income of the aged, which is a widely used resource for research and policy analysis. She received a B.A. with distinction from the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. from the University of Michigan, both in sociology.

Chief Mathematical Statistician—Brian Greenberg. Brian Greenberg joined ORES as chief mathematical statistician in 1999. He received a bachelor's degree from Rutgers, a master's from Purdue, and a doctorate from Rutgers, all in mathematics. He served on the faculties of the University of Nebraska and the University of Virginia before joining the Census Bureau in 1979 as a research mathematician in the Statistical Research Division. His areas of specialty included the development of edit and imputation methodology and the design of procedures for disclosure avoidance. He later served as senior mathematical statistician for the Business Division and the Manufacturing and Construction Division.

Division of Earnings Statistics and Analysis. The Division of Earnings Statistics and Analysis prepares and analyzes statistical data pertaining to employment, earnings, and employer classification. It also manages programs for constructing data sets that combine survey and program data and for facilitating the sharing of data with other agencies and researchers.

Director—Carolyn Puckett. Carolyn Puckett was appointed Director of the Division of Earnings Statistics and Analysis in January 2000. She began her SSA career in the Atlanta Region in 1973, coming to Headquarters in 1984 to work on modernization of the title II, title XVI, earnings, and enumeration systems. In 1998, she entered SSA's Advanced Leadership Program, during which she served on SSA's 2010 Vision Team. Ms. Puckett has attended Purdue University, the University of Tennessee, and Tennessee Technological University, where she earned her B.S. and M.A. degrees in history.

Division of Economic Research. The Division of Economic Research studies the interactions between Social Security and the economy and assesses the effects of Social Security and SSI on economic well-being.

Director—Joyce Manchester. Joyce Manchester joined the Office of Policy in January 2000 as an economist to help coordinate its modeling efforts. Immediately before that, she was the staff economist for the Social Security Advisory Board, where she provided background support for members of the Board and acted as the principal staff person for the 1999 Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods. Before working at the Advisory Board, she was an analyst in the Macroeconomic Analysis Division of the Congressional Budget Office, working on Social Security, consumption taxes, and baby boomers in retirement. Ms. Manchester also spent six months as a visiting scholar at the World Bank looking at tax evasion within social security programs around the world. After receiving a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, she was an assistant professor at Dartmouth College.

Division of Information Resources. The Division of Information Resources disseminates OP statistical and analytical material through publications and the Internet. Its responsibilities include editorial review, design and graphics, distribution of publications, and promoting the availability and use of SSA research and statistics.

Director—Sherry Snyder. Sherry Snyder joined ORES as the Director of the Division of Information Resources in 2000. Before coming to SSA, she worked at the Congressional Budget Office for 15 years overseeing the editing, production, and distribution of the agency's reports, Congressional testimony, and other publications. Most recently, she helped integrate CBO's print and Web publishing efforts. Ms. Snyder has also worked as an editor for the National Research Council and several insurance companies and as a research analyst for a Boston-based consulting firm. She received a B.A. in English from Skidmore College.

Division of Policy Evaluation. The Division of Policy Evaluation conducts SSA's policy evaluation activities and ensures that the evaluations are technically appropriate, professionally sound, policy relevant, and timely.

Director—Howard Iams. Howard Iams holds an A.B. with honors and distinction from Indiana University and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in sociology. Since coming to SSA in 1978, he has worked on a variety of research and evaluation activities. He worked on evaluation demonstrations in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and the 1982 New Beneficiary Survey and managed the 1991 follow-up to that survey. Over the past decade, Mr. Iams has been conducting policy evaluations with data from the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation matched to SSA administrative records. In collaboration with the late Steve Sandell, he designed and developed the Modeling Income in the Near Term (MINT) data system to study the impact of policy changes on the baby-boom cohort in retirement.

Division of RSDI Statistics and Analysis. The Division of RSDI Statistics and Analysis prepares and analyzes statistical data on beneficiaries and payments under the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance programs.

Director—Barbara Lingg. Barbara Lingg has been with ORES in a variety of positions since 1970. Before that, she worked for SSA in the Northeastern Program Service Center. Ms. Lingg's work in ORES has centered around the development of statistical databases and analyses of data on the OASDI beneficiary population. Currently, she oversees preparation of the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin. She holds a bachelor's degree from Queens College in New York and received her master's degree in sociology from the University of Maryland.

Division of SSI Statistics and Analysis. The Division of SSI Statistics and Analysis prepares and analyzes statistical data on beneficiaries and payments under the Supplemental Security Income program and on the characteristics of people receiving disability benefits from SSI or Social Security Disability Insurance.

Director—Paul Davies. Paul Davies is the Director of the Division of SSI Statistics and Analysis in ORES. He joined SSA in 1997, serving as team leader for SSI statistical publications in DSSA and as an economist in the Division of Policy Evaluation. He was co-Project Officer for the National Survey of SSI Children and Families and was a member of DPE's Financial Eligibility Modeling team. Mr. Davies has conducted several research projects related to the SSI program, including simulations of the impacts of SSI policy changes on SSI recipients, analyses of data from the National Survey of SSI Children and Families, and studies of SSI utilization by immigrants. He has recently published papers in Research in Labor Economics, the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, the Journal of Aging and Social Policy, and the Social Security Bulletin. Mr. Davies holds a B.A. in economics from Illinois Wesleyan University (1992) and a M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1994, 1996).