Renowned Law Professor Named President of National Academy of Social Insurance

For Immediate Release: July 14, 2003
Contact: Jill Braunstein
(202) 452-8097
jillbraun@nasi.org

WASHINGTON, DC—Jerry L. Mashaw has been elected the seventh president of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance. Mashaw is Sterling Professor of Law at the Yale Law School and a founding member of NASI.

Professor Mashaw is a leading expert on social insurance.He writes periodic columns on social welfare issues for the Los Angeles Times and is the author of numerous books and articles.His 1999 book, True Security: Rethinking American Social Insurance (with Michael J. Graetz), offers a new vision of the social insurance contract and concrete proposals to make the nation’s families more secure without increasing costs.A co-founding editor of the Journal of Law Economics and Organization, Professor Mashaw has consulted with the Social Security Administration and various private foundations.

Professor Mashaw is also an expert on disability policy issues.His 1983 book, Bureaucratic Justice: Managing Social Security Disability Claims, remains the leading text on the Social Security disability process.Mashaw was chair of NASI’s Disability Policy Panel, whose report, Balancing Security and Opportunity, was the blueprint for the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.

“We welcome Jerry’s broad vision and the energy and insight he brings to the leadership of the National Academy of Social Insurance,” said Henry Aaron, chair of NASI’s Board of Directors.

Before joining the faculty of Yale Law School, Mashaw taught at the University of Virginia Law School.He received his LL.B. from Tulane University and his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh.Mashaw succeeds Lawrence Thompson, Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute, who was president of NASI for three and a half years.

The National Academy of Social Insurance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance. Its mission is to promote understanding and informed policy-making on social insurance and related programs through research, public education, training, and the open exchange of ideas.Social insurance encompasses broad-based systems for insuring workers and their families against economic insecurity caused by loss of income from work and the cost of health care.NASI’s scope covers social insurance such as Social Security; Medicare; workers’ compensation; and unemployment insurance, related public assistance, and private employee benefits.

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