Social Security: Rethinking the Social Contract for Retirement

Each year between 2024 and 2027, over 4.1 million Americans will turn 65.

That’s 11,200 per day, on average. Many lack sufficient assets for later life, and the Social Security system faces unprecedented financial strain—posing major challenges to today’s younger generations. Will it be there for them? What might benefits look like? And what does the recent election mean for Social Security’s future? As retirement security grows increasingly elusive for millions of Americans, what is needed to meet this moment?

On December 3, Jason Fichtner—former Chief Economist of the Social Security Administration and now Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center—will discuss retirement security policy, sharing innovative ideas to ensure Social Security’s viability through a reinvigorated system for financial security in later life.

December 3, 2024
4:30–5:45 PM

Brown Lounge
Brown Hall
Washington University

Reception to follow

Elizabeth Pippert Larson

Associate Director of Research and Administration, Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, Washington University

Elizabeth Pippert Larson is the Associate Director of the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University, where she manages research programs, writes and monitors the budgets of the Center, and works with corporate sponsors. In addition to assisting faculty with external and internal grant support, as well as staff supervision, Larson also organizes public events and event planning, fundraising, and donor support. An attorney, she is a member of the Missouri and Washington, D.C. Bar associations. She also currently serves on the Community Advisory Board of St. Louis Public Radio, an NPR member station. Originally hailing from Chicago and Washington, D.C., she and her husband live with their children in the Fox Park neighborhood of the City of St. Louis.

Nancy Morrow-Howell

Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy, Brown School, Washington University

Co-Director, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

Faculty Director with the Center for Social Development

Nancy Morrow-Howell is an international leader in gerontology, known for her work on productive engagement of older adults. Her research contributes to knowledge about programs, policies and organizational arrangements that maximize the productive engagement of older adults while promoting positive outcomes for the individuals themselves. Her research documents outcomes for individual, families, and communities associated with work, volunteering, and caregiving by older adults. Her interests include the development of the Next Move initiative, now a part of WashU for Life, where older adults are facilitated in transitions to new roles in employment, volunteering or education.

At the Brown School, Morrow-Howell teaches gerontology courses. She also teaches a freshman course on aging, aimed at increasing young people’s understanding about long life and the need for social transformation. As co-director of the university’s Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, she promotes gerontological research and education across disciplines and schools.

She has received Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award and the Brown School’s Outstanding Faculty Award. In 2008 and 2011, she was given the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award by Washington University. She was the recipient of the 2011 Career Achievement Award from the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work and of the 2013 Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research.

Ray Boshara

Senior Policy Advisor, Center for Social Development

From November 2022 until June 2024, Ray was a Legislative Fellow in the Office of U.S. Senator Bob Casey, where he focused on Senator Casey’s 401Kids proposal. Prior to this, he served over 11 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, where he was the Founding Director of a research center focused on wealth inequality. Before moving to St. Louis in 2009, Ray was Vice President of New America, a DC-based think tank. Prior to New America, he worked in the U.S. Congress, Prosperity Now, the United Nations in Rome, and Ernst & Whinney (now EY). Ray also serves on many local and national boards.

In the fall of 2021, Ray published The Future of Building Wealth in partnership with the Aspen Institute and previously published The Next Progressive Era with Phillip Longman. He has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Atlantic Monthly, and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Bloomberg, and CNN, among others. He has advised presidential candidates and every Administration since George W. Bush’s and has testified before the U.S. House and Senate several times.

Raised in Akron, Ohio, Ray is a first-gen graduate of The Ohio State University. He also holds master’s degrees from Yale Divinity School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.