Fred Nesbitt, PhD
FPPTA Education Committee

Frederick H. Nesbitt is the former Executive Director and Legislative Counsel for the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) retiring in 2006.  Now living in Florida, Fred has agreed to work with the FPPTA as an industry speaker. Prior to joining NCPERS, Mr. Nesbitt served for12 years as Director of Governmental Affairs and Political Action for the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).  Previously, he served for nine years as Special Assistant to the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).

He has been a lobbyist on Capitol Hill for over 25 years, lobbying on pensions, taxes and employee benefits for both federal employees, and state and local government employees.

Mr. Nesbitt comes from an academic background; he was a professor of political science and labor relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and St. Francis College (PA).  He earned his bachelor’s degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his master’s and doctorate from West Virginia University. He is the co-editor of Labor and American Politics.

Dan Doonan
Executive Director
National Institute on Retirement Security

Dan Doonan is the executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security. With the Board of Directors, Doonan leads the organization’s strategic planning, retirement research and education initiatives.

Doonan has more than 20 years of experience working on retirement issues from different vantage points including an analyst, consultant, trainer and even a plan trustee. In these various roles, the consistent theme has been his belief that Americans have a shared interest in creating and maintaining a resilient retirement infrastructure that provides adequate financial support in an efficient manner.

He comes to NIRS after serving as a senior pension specialist with the National Education Association. There he co-authored Characteristics of Large Public Education Pension Plans, a detailed report this is considered to be a definitive resource of information about large public education retirement plans.

Doonan began his career at the Department of Labor as a mathematical statistician. He then spent seven years performing actuarial analysis with Buck Consultants in their retirement practice. His experience also includes positions as a research director and labor economist.

Doonan holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Elizabethtown College and is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Alex Brown, Research Director
National Association of State Retirement Administrators

Alex is the research manager for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) where he is responsible for collecting and updating data and contributing to fact sheets and other research materials that help inform the public pension community. He has co-authored papers on public pension and retiree health care including “Strengthening State and Local Government Finances: Lessons for Negotiating Public Pension Plan Reforms,” “Understanding Finances and Changes in Retiree Health Care,” and NASRA Issue Briefs on pension spending, hybrid retirement plans, and cost-of-living adjustments.

Before joining NASRA, Alex worked on pension and retiree health care issues for the Center for State & Local Government Excellence and the International City/County Management Association. He holds a master’s in public policy from George Mason University and a B.A. in interdisciplinary social sciences from James Madison University.

Hank Kim, Executive Director & Counsel
National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems

Hank Kim is executive director and counsel for NCPERS. Kim directs the day-to-day operation of the largest public pension trade association in the United States. His responsibilities include strategic planning for NCPERS, promoting retirement security for all workers through access to defined benefit pension plans, and the expansion of NCPERS’ role in the continuing debate on health care.

Hank brings strong experience in healthcare policy, having assisted in drafting the Healthcare Enhancement for Local Public Safety (HELPS) Retirees provision in the Pension Protection Act (PL 109-280). He has worked for a hospital association, where he successfully advocated for passage of the Provider Sponsored Organizations legislation (PL 105-33). He began his career in the office of Senator Bill Bradley (NJ) and assisted on the Newborns’ and Mothers’ Health Protection Act (PL 104-204).

Prior to joining NCPERS, Hank served for six years as a governmental affairs representative for an international public-sector union, working on benefits, appropriations, homeland security, and healthcare issues. During this period, he helped draft and lobby for the passage of Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Act (PL 108-136).

Hank received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University-Bloomington Maurer School of Law. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Hank currently serves a number of non-profit boards, including serving as Vice-Chair of the Fairfax County Uniform Retirement System, $1.5 billion public employee retirement system providing pension coverage for public safety employees of Fairfax, Virginia; as Treasurer of the National Institute on Retirement Security, a Washington, D.C. based think tank focusing on retirement security; on the Editorial Advisory Panel of the Benefits Law Journal, a quarterly law journal that features the most respected and accomplished employee benefits professionals; and as Advisory Council Chair of the Center for Retirement Initiatives at Georgetown University, a trusted public policy center that promotes retirement solutions at the state level.