Nancy J. Altman is an author at Common Dreams.  She has a forty-year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. She is president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition.

Ms. Altman is the author of The Battle for Social Security: From FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble ,and The Truth About Social Security: The Founders' Words Refute Revisionist History, Zombie Lies, and Common Misunderstandings. She is also co-author of Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke and How Expanding It Will Help Us All . 

She has shared her Social Security expertise on numerous television and radio shows, including PBS NewsHour, MSNBC, and FOX News. She has published op-eds in dozens of newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

From 1983 to 1989, Ms. Altman was on the faculty of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and taught courses on private pensions and Social Security at the Harvard Law School. In 1982, she was Alan Greenspan's assistant in his position as chairman of the bipartisan commission that developed the 1983 Social Security amendments.

From 1977 to 1981, she was a legislative assistant to Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo,) and advised the Senator with respect to Social Security issues. From 1974 to 1977, she was a tax lawyer with Covington & Burling, where she handled a variety of private pension matters.

Ms. Altman chairs the Board of Directors of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of beneficiary rights. She is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, the Economic Opportunity Institute, Latinos for the Secure Retirement, and the Institute for America's Future. In the mid-1980's, she was on the organizing committee and the first board of directors of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Ms. Altman has an A.B. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.