Kenneth S. Apfel (born October 12, 1948) is the 13th

Commissioner of Social Security The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify for ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, filling a four-year term of office that ran from 1997 through 2001.

Background

Apfel was born in

Shrewsbury, Massachusetts Shrewsbury (/ˈʃruzberi/ ''SHROOZ-bury'') is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Shrewsbury, unlike the surrounding towns of Grafton, Millbury, Westborough, Northborough, Boylston, and West Boylston did not become a ...

. A graduate of

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

, Northeastern University, and

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, he started his federal career as a Presidential Management Intern at the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploy ...

. Since 2006, he has held the position of

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

's School of Public Policy. Prior to becoming Commissioner of the Social Security Administration in 1997, he had served as Associate Director for Human Resources at the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

since 1995, and as Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget at the

United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

from 1993 to 1995. Apfel is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

References

External links

* 1948 births Clinton administration personnel Commissioners of the Social Security Administration Living people Maryland Democrats Northeastern University alumni People from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts United States Department of Health and Human Services officials United States Office of Management and Budget officials University of Maryland, College Park faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs alumni Center on Budget and Policy Priorities {{US-gov-bio-stub