Speaker biographies

Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at AEI specializing in Social Security and retirement policy. He previously served as the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA’s policy research efforts and led the agency’s participation in the Social Security Trustees working group. In 2005, he worked on Social Security reform at the White House National Economic Council, and in 2001, he was on the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

Dan L. Crippen is the chairman of the 2007 Technical Panel of the Social Security Advisory Board, a domestic policy advisor for John McCain’ presidential campaign, and a consultant for health care providers. He previously served as director of the Congressional Budget Office and was a domestic policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan. He has testified before Congress and the Federal Trade Commission and advised NASDAQ on the future of financial markets.

Steven M. Lieberman is a member of the 2007 Technical Panel of the Social Security Advisory Board, a board member of a radiology benefits management company, a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. After retiring from the federal government in 2004, Mr. Lieberman worked as a consultant focusing on quantitative analysis, policy analysis, strategic advising, and product development for a diverse array of health care clients. In 2004, he led the implementation of the new Medicare drug benefit at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. From 1999 to 2004, he worked at the Congressional Budget Office, serving as assistant director for long-term modeling, assistant director for health and human resources, and executive associate director. Between 1992 and 1999, he was the vice president for marketing and for government programs at a publicly-traded HMO, directed managed care and other operations for a major academic health center, founded a venture capital–funded company, and consulted with a variety of health care clients. Working at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1976 to 1992, Mr. Lieberman led the OMB staff that supported the 1982–83 National Commission on Social Security Reform. He also served for seven years as chief of the health financing branch and for two years as a (career) assistant director.

Jeffrey S. Passel is the senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, which he joined in January 2005. His research interests include the demography of Hispanics and immigrants, measurement of immigration (particularly undocumented), integration of immigrants into American society, and the effects (fiscal, demographic, and social) of immigrants. He also works on generational dynamics, population projections, defining racial and ethnic groups, and measuring census undercount. Mr. Passel’s previous appointments include principal research associate at the Urban Institute (1989–2005) and various positions at the Census Bureau (1974–89) where he directed programs of population estimates, projections, and demographic methods for measuring census undercount. Mr. Passel has served on committees of the Population Association of America, panels of National Academy of Sciences, and the Social Security Advisory Board’s Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Statistical Association. In 2004, American Demographics magazine named him a “demographic diamond.”

John Sabelhaus is a senior economist at the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and an adjunct professor of economics at the University of Maryland. From 1999 to 2007, he was unit chief for long-term modeling at the Congressional Budget Office, where he led a team developing a stochastic dynamic microsimulation model for studying Social Security. His current research at ICI focuses on extending those techniques to analysis of private pension arrangements. Mr. Sabelhaus has published widely on Social Security, tax policy, saving, and general budget issues in academic and policy journals, and he also produced numerous reports for Congress.

Kent Smetters is an associate professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting scholar at AEI. He worked for Congress from 1995 to 1998, before joining the University in Pennsylvania as an assistant professor. He was the Kaiser Visiting Professor of Economics in the Economics Department at Stanford University during the 2000–2001 academic year. Mr. Smetters was appointed deputy assistant secretary for economic policy of the U.S. Treasury in 2001, where he served until August 2002. He remains active in Washington and recently served as a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Dynamic Scoring for the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Shripad Tuljapurkar is a member of the 2007 Technical Panel of the Social Security Advisory Board. He is the dean, the Virginia Morrison Professor of Population Studies, and a professor of biology at Stanford University. He is also a member of Berkeley’s Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging. Mr. Tuljapurkar is a demographer and biologist, and he works on population aging, age structural transitions, and the evolution of senescence.

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