John Scott

About John Scott

As Director for Retirement Savings Project, I will be implementing and directing the initiative, including hiring a team of researchers and policy analysts, overseeing the research agenda, serving as the project’s primary spokesperson and liaison to key policy audiences and the media, disseminating research findings widely and collaborating on fundraising. This project will provide rigorous research to inform a series of policy discussions at the state and federal level about how to help families increase their private savings. The focus of this research will be on employer-based retirement programs, such as 401(k) plans, as most families accumulate the bulk of their retirement savings at work. Specifically, the project will provide highly credible, independent, non-partisan research to address critical questions, including: significant factors that prevent employers from offering retirement plans or from implementing plan features that lead to greater savings; the impact of disclosure on plan fees, and how leading state and federal proposals to increase retirement savings would affect employers, workers and taxpayers. The project will also extensively engage influential policy makers, thought leaders, business organizations, and advocates in policy discussions that address these questions.This position is based in Pew’s Washington DC office, and the Retirement Savings Project is part of the Family Economic Stability portfolio.Specialties: aging and work; retirement security; lobbying; social network analysis; quantitative analysis; public policy.

Experience

1. Director, Retirement Savings Project

   The Pew Charitable Trusts

   Dec 2014 — Present

   Leading a research and policy project that examines barriers to retirement savings and enacts policy initiatives; helped enact new statewide retirement savings programs in 6 states and assisting several states in implementing policy changes that will enable hundreds of thousands of workers to save for their future; examining federal and state tax policy for boosting retirement resources of underserved workers.

Education

• The University of Maryland. College

  Masters of Arts, Sociology

• Penn State Dickinson Law

  JD, Law

• Cornell University

  PhD, Sociology

• Swarthmore College

  BA, Economics

Skills

• Public Policy
• Survey Research
• Research
• Public Health
• Social Sciences
• Spss
• University Teaching
• Literature Reviews
• Stata
• Grant Writing
• Data Analysis
• Public Speaking
• Data Collection
• Program Management
• Healthcare
• Qualitative Research
• Employee Benefits
• R
• Policy
• Economics
• Social Network Analysis
• Theory
• Statistical Modeling
• Research Design
• Social Impact
• Politics
• Epidemiology
• Policy Analysis
• Quantitative Research
• Statistical Analysis
• Political Sociology
• Sociology
• Teaching
• Entrepreneurship
• Statistics