This content is from: Corner Office
The 2015 Pension 40: Teresa Ghilarducci
No. 33 Teresa Ghilarducci, Labor Economist / New School for Social Research


A longtime advocate of adequate retirement benefits for American workers, author and economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci serves on committees and study groups hoping to solve the U.S. retirement-income-security crisis. For example, she’s a member of the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, which is looking to improve Social Security, defined benefit pensions and defined contribution plans. “We’re on the road to what everyone expects has to happen,” says the ever-upbeat Ghilarducci, 58, who taught at the University of Notre Dame for 25 years before moving to New York’s New School for Social Research, where she heads the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. She argues for the creation of a system “with adequate accumulation, investment and payout structure. It’s not rocket science. It’s the elements of very good pension design.” Ghilarducci finds she can present her ideas about pension design in an ever-growing number of forums. Currently Ghilarducci is an unpaid adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign and a longtime member of the Government Accountability Office’s retirement policy advisory panel. In February she was tapped by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer to serve with five other academics to help design a retirement plan for full-time workers without access to workplace plans.
![]() 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation ![]() 3. Chris Christie New Jersey ![]() 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers ![]() 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor |
![]() 6. Kevin de León California ![]() 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico ![]() 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock ![]() 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago ![]() 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions |
![]() 11. John Kline Minnesota ![]() 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. TreasuryDepartment ![]() 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO ![]() 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. ![]() 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution |
![]() 16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. ![]() 17. Mark Mullet Washington ![]() 18. Terry O'Sullivan Laborers' International Union of North America ![]() 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates ![]() 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon |
![]() 21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund ![]() 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center ![]() 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans ![]() 24. Robert O'Keef Motorola Solutions ![]() 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley |
![]() 26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg ![]() 27. Orrin Hatch Utah ![]() 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University ![]() 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group ![]() 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business |
![]() 31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees' Retirement System ![]() 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services ![]() 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research ![]() 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut ![]() 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp. |
![]() 36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems ![]() 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. ![]() 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition ![]() 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial ![]() 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department |