The Century Foundation (TCF) today announced that Laura Haltzel is joining the organization as a Senior Fellow, focused on ensuring and defending retirement income security for all Americans. A 25+ year veteran of the federal government, Haltzel is a leading authority on retirement income, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and other social insurance programs—critical lifelines for older, low-income, and disabled Americans that are newly under threat in the 118th Congress.

Haltzel brings extensive experience producing politically sensitive, analytically rigorous, nonpartisan policy and research on retirement security issues for clients in the U.S. Congress, Social Security Administration (SSA), and Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Most recently, she served as the research manager for the Income Security Section at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), where she led a team in the development of Congressional reports across a wide-range of social insurance topics and programs.

“Laura Hatlzel knows Social Security and retirement income as well as anybody in the country. With these programs once again under attack by some in Congress, there is no one else you’d rather have in your corner defending Americans’ retirement security than Laura,” said Mark Zuckerman, President of The Century Foundation and former deputy director in President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council. “We’re thrilled that Laura is bringing her immense experience and expertise to TCF at such an important moment to protect Social Security.”

Haltzel has deep expertise in Social Security policy, having served as an advisor to both the Social Security Administration’s Retirement and Disability Research Consortium and the Social Security Advisory Board. Her leadership roles at SSA included work as deputy associate commissioner for the Office of Data Exchange and Policy Publications. Haltzel previously served as SSA’s deputy associate commissioner for the Office of Retirement Policy (ORP), ORP’s director of the Office of Policy Research, and as a social science research analyst.

“Everyone deserves the opportunity to retire with dignity, with the support from the Social Security program that they have contributed to and been promised their entire working life,” said Laura Haltzer, Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation. “I’ve dedicated most of my professional career to studying and strengthening Social Security and other social insurance programs, and I’m excited to bring that experience to such a respected and rigorous organization as The Century Foundation.”

Haltzel first joined CRS in 2002, and worked for six years as a specialist in Social Security’s Old Age and Survivors Insurance program. She started her policy career in SSA’s Office of Retirement Policy as an analyst focused on use of the Microsimulation in the Near Term (MINT) model to estimate the distributional effects of policy proposals. Haltzel holds a master of public policy degree from Duke University (1998), and a BA in international relations and Hispanic studies from Connecticut College (1992).