Social Security History

October 8, 1993 to February 28, 1997

Shirley Sears Chater became Commissioner of Social Security on October 8, 1993. Commissioner Chater, who brings a lifetime of leadership and public service experience to this position, came to the Social Security Administration from Texas Woman's University, where she served as President from 1986 to 1993. Among her other positions, Commissioner Chater served as an associate with the American Council on Education, Division of Academic Affairs and Institutional Relations in 1983-84 and as senior associate of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges from 1984 to 1986. She was Vice Chancellor for academic affairs at the University of California-San Francisco from 1977 to 1982. She held faculty appointments from 1972 to 1986 in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, at the University of California-San Francisco and in the School of Education at the University of California-Berkeley.

Commissioner Chater, a native of Pennsylvania, received her B.S. degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. degree in nursing from the University of California-San Francisco, a Ph.D. in education from the University of California-Berkeley and a certificate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management. Commissioner Chater has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Academy of Social Insurance.