Honoring William Spriggs
2016 Robert M. Ball Award Event Committee
Maya Rockeymoore, Co-Chair, is a policy analyst, researcher, and advocate with expertise in an array of public policy issues. She is the founder, President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions. Prior to launching GPS, Dr. Rockeymoore served as Vice President for Research and Programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation where she helped create the Foundation’s think tank, the Center for Policy Analysis and Research. Before joining CBCF, Dr. Rockeymoore served as the Senior Resident Scholar for Health and Income Security at the National Urban League’s policy think tank, and as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to Congressman Charles Rangel. Other defining positions held by Dr. Rockeymoore include working as a professional staffer on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, as a CBCF Congressional Fellow in the Office of Congressman Melvin Watt, and as an Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Marion County Health Department in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Rockeymoore holds a B.A. in political science and mass communications from Prairie View A&M University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science and public policy from Purdue University.
Richard Trumka, Co-Chair, is president of the 12.5 million-member American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). He was elected in 2009 after serving as secretary-treasurer for 14 years. He was also elected president of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD in May 2010. Prior to this, Trumka served in several positions in the United Mine Workers of America. From 1974 to 1979, Trumka was a staff attorney with the United Mine Workers at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was elected to the board of directors of UMWA District 4 in 1981 and became President of the United Mine Workers in 1982. He has a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D from Villanova University.
G. Lawrence (Larry) Atkins is currently the Executive Director of the Long-Term Quality Alliance. In 2013 he served as Staff Director of the Federal Commission on Long-Term Care. Previously, Atkins was Executive Director of U.S. Public Policy for Merck & Co., where he directed the pharmaceutical company’s public policy and legislative strategy development, covering federal, state and local public policy issues. Prior to joining Merck, he held a similar position at Schering-Plough Corporation. Previously, Atkins was President of the consulting firm Health Policy Analysts. He has also worked for The Jefferson Group and the law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam and Roberts. During the 1980s, Atkins served as Republican Staff Director and professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. He was also staff to Senator Heinz as Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Private Retirement Plans. In 1982, he was Senator Heinz’s Technical Advisor on the National Commission on Social Security Reform. Atkins was a member of the 1991 Advisory Council on Social Security, the Technical Advisory Panel on retirement savings for the 1995 Advisory Council on Social Security, and NASI’s 2010 study panel on Health Insurance Exchanges. A founding NASI member, he received his Ph.D. in social welfare policy from Brandeis University.
Christine Baker is the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations for the State of California, where she has served since its inception in 1994. Prior to this, she served in several management capacities in the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) including Chief of the Division of Labor Statistics and Research and Deputy Director for the Division of Workers’ Compensation. She co-chaired the October 2006 Symposium on Workers’ Compensation, “Health and Income Security for Injured Workers: Key Policy Issues.” She has been a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2002 and chairs its Audit Committee. Baker received her master’s degree from the School of Education at the University of California–Berkeley.
Dean Baker is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Previously, he was a Senior Economist with the Economic Policy Institute. From 1989 to 1992, he was an Assistant Professor at Bucknell University. Mr. Baker has written numerous articles and publications including Social Security: The Phony Crisis, The Public Investment Deficit, and Getting Prices Right: The Battle Over the Consumer Price Index. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1998, Mr. Baker received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Robert Berenson, M.D., is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute and on the faculties of Duke University School of Business and the George Washington University School of Public Health. From 1998 to 2001, he was a senior official in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Before that, he had a nine-year tenure as board member and medical director of the National Capital Preferred Provider Organization. He also founded and practiced for twelve years in an internal medicine group practice in Washington, D.C. Dr. Berenson served on the Academy’s Study Panel on Medicare Capitation and Choice and as co-chair of its Study Panel on Administrative Issues in Expanding Coverage in Health Care Reform. Previously, Dr. Berenson was an Assistant Director of the Domestic Policy Staff at the White House (1979–1980), and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar (1977–1979). He has written extensively on issues related to physician practice in managed care, physician payment policy, and the politics of health care, and has been published in Health Affairs, New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. A founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Dr. Berenson received his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Carroll Estes is Professor of Sociology at the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF). She was the founding Director of the Institute for Health and Aging (1979–1998), and Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (1981–1992). Professor Estes is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and past President of the Gerontological Society of America, the American Society on Aging, and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. She has received numerous honors and awards including the Faculty Research Lecturer Award, the American Society on Aging Leadership Award, the Kent Award of GSA, the Beverly Award for Research in Health and Aging, the Tibbitts Leadership Award in Gerontology, and the Helen Nahm Research Award of UCSF. In 1998 the League of Women Voters named her ”A Woman Who Could Be President.” Her books include Social Policy and Aging and The Long Term Care Crisis, which was cited as one of Choice Magazine’s top 100 most important books in 1994. A founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Professor Estes received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California–San Diego.
Howard Fluhr has been Chairman of The Segal Company since 2006, having been President and CEO from 1994-2005. He has been a member of the board since 1987. He is the author of numerous articles and has spoken extensively on human resource and employee benefits issues. Mr. Fluhr has also spoken on the interplay of private pensions, Social Security and public policy, including testimony before a Presidential commission. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, the International Actuarial Association, and an Enrolled Actuary. Mr. Fluhr is a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and a member of the Board of Trustees and past Chairman of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Mr. Fluhr has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) since 1994 and was Chairman of that board for two years. He has served as a board member and vice president of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and as a Board member of the American Academy of Actuaries, for which he also served as vice president of its pension council. He is also a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development. He is also a member of NYU’s Dean’s Council of the College of Arts and Sciences. A Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2006, Mr. Fluhr received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy from New York University.
Mary Kay Henry is an American labor union activist who was elected International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on May 8, 2010. She is the first woman to lead the union. By 2015, she was named one of the 100 most creative leaders by Fast Company magazine and was included in the top 50 visionaries reshaping American politics by Politico magazine. During the 1980s, Henry held 18 jobs within the SEIU in California. She served as the San Francisco-area strike coordinator during a 1986 strike by more than 9,000 clerks, certified nursing assistants, and technicians against 14 Kaiser Permanente hospitals and health care facilities throughout California. While serving with the union in California, she helped pioneer SEIU’s use of card check agreements, non-traditional collective bargaining agreements, comprehensive campaigns, and system-wide health care organizing strategies. Henry began working with SEIU in 1979 as a researcher and rose to become a leader and chief healthcare strategist and was elected to the International Executive Board in 1996. In June 2004, she was elected to serve as an International Executive Vice President of SEIU, leading the union’s efforts to build a stronger voice for healthcare workers. She serves on the executive board of Families USA, a non-profit consumer health care advocacy organization, and used to be a labor adviser to the Catholic Health Care and Work Subcommittee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University in 1979, majoring in urban planning and labor relations.
Mark Levinson is the Chief Economist for The Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He previously worked as Chief Economist for UNITE HERE and as an economist at the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). His writings on economic policy, the global economy and labor rights have been published in The New York Times, The Nation, The American Prospect, Dissent (where he is also book review editor), New Labor Forum and Boston Review. In 2002-2003 Mr. Levinson was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University, and in 2005-06 he was the co-director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Agenda for Shared Prosperity. Levinson received his Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research.
Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author, liberal social and political commentator, and businesswoman. She was the 15th President of Bennett College for Women, and her writing has appeared in USA Today, Black Issues in Higher Education, Ms. Magazine, Essence Magazine, and the Progressive. Her weekly columns appeared for more than a decade (1990-2003) in newspapers across the country including the Los Angeles Times, Charlotte Observer, New Orleans Tribune, Detroit Free Press, and San Francisco Examiner. Dr. Julianne Malveaux has been a contributor to academic life since receiving her Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1980. She has been on the faculty or visiting faculty of the New School for Social Research, San Francisco State University, the University of California (Berkeley), College of Notre Dame (San Mateo, California), Michigan State University and Howard University. She holds honorary degrees from Sojourner Douglas College (Baltimore, Maryland), Marygrove College (Detroit, Michigan), University of the District of Columbia, and Benedict College (Columbia, South Carolina). She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics at Boston College.
Samuel Myers, Jr. is Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice and directs the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Myers is a past president of the leading organization of policy analysts, the Association of Public Policy and Management (APPAM). He has also served as president of the National Economic Association (NEA). He has served on the executive committee of the Network of Schools in Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration. He is a former chair of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), council member of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and member of the Economic Policy Advisory Committee Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Myers has consulted with the National Employment Policy Commission, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Civil Rights Commission, U.S. General Accounting Office, and U.S. Congressional Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime. He has also served as a senior staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission. Myers holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sherry Newton Dillard is currently a Principal at Newton Dillard Inc. Sherry has partnered with advocacy groups, industry leaders, lawmakers, regulators and legislative staff on a number of issues, including health care, housing, education, job training and transportation. Previously, Dillard has served as a Congressional staffer and as an Associate Vice President at Van Scoyoc Associates. She also served in senior level policy positions at the United Negro College Fund and the National Urban League. Early in her career, she served as an analyst in the New York City Comptroller’s Office addressing an array of public policy issues. Sherry holds a bachelor of public administration degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Shaun O’Brien is the Assistant Director for Health and Retirement in the AFL-CIO’s Policy Department, where he oversees development of the Federation’s policies related to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and work-based health and retirement plans. He currently represents the AFL-CIO on the Steering Committee of the National Public Pension Coalition and the Measure Applications Partnership Coordinating Committee, the multi-stakeholder partnership that guides the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the selection of performance measures for federal health programs. Immediately prior to joining the AFL-CIO, he held several positions at AARP, including the Vice President for the My Money Portfolio and Senior Vice President for Economic Security. In previous positions at the AFL-CIO, his work focused on retirement security issues, and he oversaw the Federation’s policy efforts on labor standards, health care, job training and related issues. He began his career as a Staff Attorney at the Pension Rights Center. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 1999, Mr. O’Brien holds a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from American University and a law degree from Cornell Law School.
Terry O’Neill an attorney, professor and activist for social justice, was elected president of The National Organization for Women (NOW) in June 2009. She is also president of the NOW Foundation and chair of the NOW Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. She has served as president of Louisiana NOW and New Orleans NOW and as a member of the National Racial Diversity Committee. She is a past president of Maryland NOW and served on the NOW National Board twice. A former law professor, O’Neill taught at Tulane in New Orleans and at the University of California at Davis, where her courses included feminist legal theory and international women’s rights law, in addition to corporate law and legal ethics. O’Neill holds a bachelor’s degree in French with distinction from Northwestern University and a law degree magna cum laude from Tulane University.
William (Bill) Rodgers is Professor of Economics at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Chief Economist at John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. His research examines issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Rodgers served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2000 to 2001, and he was the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of Economics at the College of William and Mary. Rodgers has appointments as a member of the Graduate Faculty at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and senior research affiliate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. His policy work spans from working on Acting Governor Codey’s pensions benefits review task force to serving as a member of Governor Corzine’s commission on government efficiency and reform. Currently, he sits on the National Urban League’s Council of Economic Advisors, and he served on President Obama’s Department of Labor Transition Team. Rodgers’ expertise is frequently called upon by journalists for articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Financial Times, U.S.A. Today, Business Week, and other publications. A member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2006, he has served as the Co-Chair for the 2010 NASI Conference,” Beyond the Bad Economy: Jobs, Retirement, Health, and Social Insurance.” Rodgers received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Damon Silvers is the Director of Policy and Special Counsel for the AFL-CIO. He joined the AFL-CIO as Associate General Counsel in 1997. Mr. Silvers serves on a pro bono basis as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the state of New York. Mr. Silvers is also a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department’s Financial Research Advisory Committee, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Standing Advisory Group and its Investor Advisory Group. Mr. Silvers served as the Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP from 2008 to 2011. Between 2006 and 2008, Mr. Silvers served as the Chair of the Competition Subcommittee of the United States Treasury Department Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession and as a member of the United States Treasury Department Investor’s Practice Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. Prior to working for the AFL-CIO, Mr. Silvers worked for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers, and as a law clerk at the Delaware Court of Chancery for Chancellor William T. Allen and Vice-Chancellor Bernard Balick. Mr. Silvers received his J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School. He received his M.B.A. with high honors from Harvard Business School and is a Baker Scholar.
