Scholars Advisory Group

Jason Fichtner

Jason Fichtner is Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer of International Economics and Associate Director of the International Economics and Finance (MIEF) program at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His research focuses on Social Security, federal tax policy, federal budget policy, retirement security, and policy proposals to increase saving and investment. Fichtner served in several positions at the Social Security Administration, including Deputy Commissioner of Social Security (acting), Chief Economist, and Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy. He also served as a Senior Research Fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Senior Economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, Economist with the Internal Revenue Service, and as a Senior Consultant with the Office of Federal Tax Services at Arthur Andersen, LLP. Fichtner earned his BA from the University of Michigan, his MPP from Georgetown University, and his Ph.D. in public administration and policy from Virginia Tech.

Andrew Biggs

Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and public sector pay and benefits. Before joining AEI, Biggs was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA’s policy research efforts. In 2005, as an associate director of the White House National Economic Council, he worked on Social Security reform. In 2001, he joined the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Biggs has been interviewed on radio and television as an expert on retirement issues and on public vs. private sector compensation. He has published widely in academic publications as well as in daily newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also testified before Congress on numerous occasions. In 2013, the Society of Actuaries appointed Biggs co-vice chair of a blue ribbon panel tasked with analyzing the causes of underfunding in public pension plans and how governments can securely fund plans in the future. In 2014, Institutional Investor Magazine named him one of the 40 most influential people in the retirement world. In 2016, he was appointed by President Obama to be a member of the financial control board overseeing reforms to Puerto Rico’s budget and the restructuring of the island’s debts.

Biggs holds a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, master’s degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

David Blanchett

David Blanchett, PhD, CFA, CFP®, is Managing Director and Head of Retirement Research, DC Solutions for PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. In this role he develops research and innovative solutions to help improve retirement outcomes for investors. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Wealth Management at The American College of Financial Services

David has published over 100 papers in a variety of industry and academic journals that have received a variety of awards. In 2021, ThinkAdvisor included him in the IA25 for “pushing the industry forward.” In 2014, InvestmentNews included him in their inaugural 40 under 40 list as a “visionary” for the financial planning industry.

When David isn’t working, he’s probably out for a jog, playing with his four kids, or rooting for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Michael Finke

Michael Finke, Ph.D. is a Professor of wealth management and Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security Research at The American College of Financial Services. He received a doctorate in consumer economics from the Ohio State University in 1998 and in finance from the University of Missouri in 2011. He led the Retirement Planning and Living Consortium at Texas Tech University before moving to the American College, and is a nationally known researcher in the areas of retirement income planning, retirement spending, life satisfaction, and cognitive aging.  He is a frequent speaker at financial planning conferences and was named one of the 25 most influential people in the field of investment advising in 2020 and 2021 by Investment Advisor Magazine.

Leora Friedberg

Leora Friedberg is an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She is also an affiliated researcher of the Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center and a Research Fellow of the TIAA Institute. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance and of the University of Virginia Retirement Administrative Committee and previously served for four years on the Board of Trustees of the Southern Economic Association, for four years on the University of Virginia Faculty Senate, and on seven occasions as a member of the Retirement Security Advisory Panel for the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Friedberg’s research focuses on retirement and saving behavior of older Americans, including studies of the Social Security earnings test, the structure of employer pension benefits, and the interaction between Medicaid long-term care benefits and household saving and insurance decisions. Additional research studies family formation and dissolution in response to bargaining theory, state family law, and the U.S. tax code. Her research has been funded by the National Institute on Aging and the U.S. Social Security Administration. She has testified for the U.S. Congress and has served on numerous grant review, conference paper selection, and awards committees. Friedberg received her Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gopi Shah Goda

Gopi Shah Goda is a senior fellow and the deputy director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University. Goda is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. She conducts research on issues related to the economics of aging in the United States to inform economic policymaking. Her most recent studies include an examination of perceptual and behavioral biases and their relationship with retirement saving decisions and the effects of long-term care insurance on family members’ work and location decisions. Goda’s work has appeared in a variety of leading economic journals and has been supported by the Social Security Administration, the National Institutes on Aging, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the TIAA Institute. Prior to joining Stanford, she was a Robert Wood Johnson scholar in health policy research at Harvard University. She earned her bachelor’s in mathematics and actuarial science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

Regina T. Jefferson

Regina T. Jefferson is a nationally recognized authority on pension law, employee benefits, and tax law. In addition to teaching and producing a rich body of scholarship in these areas, she has been actively involved in the policy development of these fields. She has testified before Congress and briefed Congressional staff on employee benefits and tax topics. Professor Jefferson also was a delegate to the First White House Summit on Retirement Income Savings. In 2015, she was appointed by the President of the United States to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Advisory Committee for a three year term; and in 2019 she was reappointed for a consecutive three year term. She also currently serves as an expert on taxation to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.

Professor Jefferson joined the CUA faculty in 1992. She served as the Dean of the Law School from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019, and also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 2000 and 2001. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a Tax Law Specialist at the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service in the Employee Plans Division, where she specialized in qualified employee plans. From 1990 through 1992, she was a teaching fellow in the Graduate Teaching Program for Future Law Professors at Georgetown University, where her research and teaching focused on the tax aspects of private pension plans. Before attending law school, Professor Jefferson worked in the pension actuarial field.

Professor Jefferson’s scholarship focuses primarily on employee benefits and tax law. She has written extensively on the re-distributional impact of the private retirement system, the confluence of pension and tax law, the tax and actuarial aspects of the funding limitations of defined benefit plans, and the risks of defined contribution plans.

Professor Jefferson was selected as a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits, and the National Academy of Social Insurance. She is a member of the Pension Rights Center Board of Directors and the Institute on Retirement Security Academic Advisory Board. She also is a former chair of the Employee Benefit Section of the Association of American Law Schools.

Professor Jefferson earned a B.S. degree in mathematics from Howard University, a J.D. degree from George Washington University, and an LL.M. degree from Georgetown University.

Annamaria Lusardi

Annamaria Lusardi is the Endowed Chair of Economics and Accountancy at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). Previously, she was the Joel Z. and Susan Hyatt Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, where she taught for twenty years. She has also taught at Princeton University, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Columbia Business School. From January to June 2008, she was a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School. Moreover, she is the founder and academic director of GWSB’s Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC). She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a BA in Economics from Bocconi University.

Dr. Lusardi has won numerous research awards. Among them is a research fellowship from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, a faculty fellowship from the John M. Olin Foundation, and a junior and senior faculty fellowship from Dartmouth College. She was also awarded the 2015 Financial Literacy Award from the International Federation of Finance Museums, the 2014 William A. Forbes Public Awareness Award from the Council for Economic Education, the 2013 William E. Odom Visionary Leadership Award from the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, and the National Numeracy Network’s inaugural 2012 Steen Award. Moreover, she is the recipient of the 2007 Fidelity Pyramid Prize, an award to authors of published applied research that best helps address the goal of improving lifelong financial well-being for Americans. In 2009, she served as a faculty advisor for the Office of Financial Education of the U.S. Treasury.

Monique Morrissey

Monique Morrissey is an Institute Economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions. She joined EPI in 2006. Her areas of interest include social insurance, employee benefits, household savings, tax expenditures, older workers, public employees unions, and financial markets. She is active in coalition efforts to reform our private retirement system to ensure an adequate, secure, and affordable retirement for all workers. She is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Prior to joining EPI, Morrissey worked at the AFL-CIO Office of Investment and the Financial Markets Center. She has a Ph.D. in economics from American University.

Wade Pfau

Wade D. Pfau, PhD, CFA, RICP® is the founder of Retirement Researcher, an educational resource for individuals and financial advisors on topics related to retirement income planning. He is a co-founder of the Retirement Income Style Awareness tool and a co-host of the Retire with Style podcast. He also serves as a principal and the director of retirement research for McLean Asset Management. He is a professor of practice at the American College of Financial Services and past director of the Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) designation program. He holds a doctorate in economics from Princeton University and has published more than sixty peer-reviewed research articles in a wide variety of academic and practitioner journals. He is a contributor to Forbes, Advisor Perspectives, and an Expert Panelist for the Wall Street Journal.  Wade’s newest book is Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success. He is also the author of three other books in the Retirement Researcher Guide Series. He was a nominee for the InvestmentNews “Power 20” in 2013 and “40 Under 40” in 2014, the Investment Advisor 35 list, the Investment Advisor 25 list for 2014, and Financial Planning Magazine’s Influencer Awards. He is a two-time winner of the Journal of Financial Planning Montgomery-Warschauer Award, a two-time winner of the Academic Thought Leadership Award from the Retirement Income Industry Association, and a best paper award winner in the retirement category from the Academy of Financial Services.

David Pratt

David Pratt is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany Law School. He received his law degree from Oxford. Since 1976, he has specialized in retirement plans and other employee benefit programs. He is the author of the Social Security and Medicare Answer Book and the co-author of Pension and Employee Benefits Law (with John Langbein, Susan Stabile and Andrew Stumpff), ERISA and Employee Benefit Law: the Essentials (with Sharon Reese) and Taxation of Distributions from Qualified Plans (with Dianne Bennett and others). He has also written numerous articles and is a frequent lecturer. He is the Vice Chair of the Life Insurance and Employee Benefits Committee of the Trusts and Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and a fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He is married, with 5 children and 5 grandchildren, and lives in Albany, New York.

Jonathan Reuter

Dr. Jonathan Reuter is an associate professor of finance at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. He studies the behavior of individual investors and financial institutions, including mutual funds, investment banks, and the financial media. His ongoing research focuses on the behavior of retirement plan participants, the value of financial advice, and the strategic behavior of target-date retirement funds.

He received the 2013 TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security for research on retiree demand for life annuities and the 2020 ICPM Research Award for research on retirement plan participant behavior during the COVID-19 crisis. He received the Carroll School Coughlin Distinguished Teaching Award for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Prior to joining the faculty at Boston College, Professor Reuter spent five years as an assistant professor of finance at the University of Oregon, where he was named the Laura and Abbott Keller Distinguished Research Scholar and received both the Business Advisory Council Undergraduate Teaching Award (Winter 2007) and the James E. Reinmuth M.B.A. Teaching Excellence Award (2007-2008).

After receiving his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002, Professor Reuter spent one year as a postdoctoral research fellow at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. His research has been published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Finance, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Review of Financial Studies.

Sita Slavov

Sita Nataraj Slavov is a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and an editor at the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. Previously, she has worked as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, an associate professor at Occidental College, and a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. She served as a member of the 2019 Social Security Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University and her B.A. from the College of William and Mary.

Professor Slavov’s research focuses primarily on public finance and the economics of aging. She has published numerous articles, book chapters, and policy briefs on work at older ages and retirement policy. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Human Resources, the Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Public Economic Theory. In addition to her scholarly work, she has published many op-eds and blog posts in outlets such as the New York Times Room for Debate, the Los Angeles Times, Real Clear Markets, and the U.S. News Economic Intelligence Blog.

Nora Super

Nora Super is the chief executive officer of NS Ideas, LLC & a senior fellow with the Long-Term Quality Alliance. In 2020, Super launched the Milken Institute Alliance to Improve Dementia Care to transform and improve the complex health and long-term care systems that people at risk for and living with dementia must navigate. Super is a respected thought leader, frequent speaker, and prolific writer on healthy longevity and the economic and social impact of global population aging. From 2014 to 2016, Super served as the executive director of the White House Conference on Aging, where she received wide recognition for her nationwide efforts to improve the lives of older Americans. She has also held leadership roles at the US Department of Health and Human Services, AARP, Kaiser Permanente, and USAging.

A native of New Orleans, Nora studied political science at Tulane University and completed her masters’ work in public administration, with a concentration in health policy, at George Washington University.

Anthony Webb

Anthony Webb is Senior Fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California San Diego. Prior to joining New School, he spent 11 years at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Webb’s research focuses on asset accumulation and drawdown over the life cycle and the management of post retirement risks. His work includes studies of the value of annuities to retired households, annuitization strategies, the impact of the Social Security earnings test, the structure of employer pension benefits, the interaction between Medicaid long-term care benefits and household saving and insurance decisions, trends in socioeconomic mortality differentials, the impact of adverse selection on the basis of Social Security claim age, and the adequacy of pre-retirement savings. His work has been published in many leading peer reviewed journals and has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, the U.S. Social Security Administration, AARP, and the Society of Actuaries, amongst others.