Nancy Bekavac hasn't landed a job with the incoming administration (yet), but the Claremont Graduate University is losing Susan Daniels to president-elect Obama's Social Security transition team, the Daily Bulletin tells us. Daniels is a visiting scholar at the CGU's Kay Center for E-Health Research.
According to the Bulletin's article, from 1988 to 2000. Daniels worked for several federal agencies, including a stint from 1994 to 2000 as a deputy commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs at the Social Security Administration.
It's indeed appropriate that Obama would look to graying Claremont for someone to for anything concerning Social Security. The article gave some of Daniel's background:
Daniels has been at the Kay Center for almost two years. She has helped to guide policy analysis and research in the technology for disability determination, officials said.
When reached by telephone, Daniels said she could not talk unless authorized by the transition team. A transition team spokesman said in an e-mail Thursday that members of the team were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Daniels is a co-chairwoman of the National Academy of Social Insurance's 18th annual conference, titled "Older and Out of Work: Social Insurance for a Changing Economy." Daniels has been a member of the organization since 2001.
Sue Feldman, assistant director for the Kay Center, said of Daniels "she excels at looking at the big picture, categorizing the important aspects and delegating tasks."
Feldman, who declined to answer specifics about how Daniels was chosen for the position, said she and Daniels have worked together on nationwide disability policy forums. The two tackled how policy at the federal level affects the United States.
A blog called Social Security News, by North Carolina attorney Charles T. Hall, had a negative review of the Daniels choice:
I do not want to go on and on about a person whose role whose role is likely to be over in about two months, but just try to find one example of Dr. Daniels speaking out about the enormous backlogs that have developed at the Social Security Administration. Where was she when she might have done some good?
Dr. Daniels is no well-respected elder statesperson. She should not have gotten this appointment. Any nomination of Dr. Daniels to serve in any official capacity at Social Security would be controversial. She does not even have any business on the Social Security Advisory Board and I think the SSAB is so worthless that it ought to be abolished.
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