EBSA Press Release: Secretary of Labor Designates Head for Pension Agency [07/02/1998]

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

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Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman today delegated the duties of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) to Meredith Miller. Miller, who has served as PWBA's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy for the last 5 years, will carry out the duties of Assistant Secretary until a permanent candidate is appointed to fill the post.

"Meredith is the right person to assure continuity of leadership in this most important position. She will play a major role in addressing the many policy issues in the pension and health arena, which are among the most important for America's workforce," said Herman. "I am particularly grateful for all her counsel, which proved invaluable to me in carrying out the mission of the President's Commission on Health Quality."

Miller, originally from Spring Valley, N.Y., will head an agency that oversees approximately 700,000 private pension plans, with approximately $3.8 trillion in assets, and another 6 million welfare benefit plans. She will be responsible for administration, policy making and enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

When Miller joined the department, she had more than 14 years' experience working on job benefits programs for Americans. She came to the department from the AFL-CIO, where her last position was assistant director of the employee benefits department. She was with the AFL-CIO since 1988 and served in other roles involving employee benefits.

From 1983 until 1988, Miller was assistant research director for employee benefits with the Service Employees International Union and taught at the college level for a year before that.

Miller graduated from Hampshire College in Massachusetts in 1977. She earned her master's degree a year later in industrial and labor relations from the London School of Economics in England, where she finished first in her class.

She has served on the Labor Department's ERISA Advisory Council, the editorial board of Business and Health Magazine and the advisory boards of the Bureau of National Affairs Pension and Benefits Reporter and the National Resource Center on worksite health promotion of the Washington Business Group on Health. She holds memberships in several organizations including the National Academy of Social Insurance and American Friends of the London School of Economics.

Miller is author of several magazine articles, brochures and pamphlets on pension and other job benefits, a frequent speaker before many employee benefit industry groups and has appeared in several videos on these same subjects.

Miller and her husband, Barton Bracken, have two children: a son, Myles, 8, and a daughter, Madison, 6.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.