HARRISBURG, PA – The Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) announced Friday that Executive Director Terrill “Terri” J. Sanchez will retire later this year, ending a trailblazing government service career that spanned four decades.
Sanchez submitted her letter of resignation, effective June 27, 2025, to the Board of Trustees and informed her staff of her retirement intentions on Friday. Sanchez is the first woman to hold the position of PSERS Executive Director since the system’s statutory founding in 1917.
“Today is a mix of pleasure and sweet melancholy,” Sanchez said. “Although I love working in service to others, it is time for me to bring my long tenure with PSERS and the Commonwealth to a close. I plan to spend quality time with my grandson, giving him what I hope will be the first of many ‘best summers of his life.’”
Sanchez, a Dillsburg resident who was raised in the Shamokin area, began her Commonwealth service in 1983 as an intern while studying computer science at Lock Haven University. Upon graduation, she landed a full-time state job as a Computer Science Management Trainee and then joined PSERS in 1987. Sanchez spearheaded PSERS’ pension administration system’s computer modernization initiatives and ultimately rose to the position of Deputy Executive Director. She left PSERS in April 2018 to become executive director of the State Employees’ Retirement System and retired in December 2021. Her retirement did not last long. She rejoined PSERS in an emergency capacity in January 2022 to fill a leadership vacancy and was named permanent executive director five months later.
“I am eternally grateful for Terri’s selfless decision to return during a difficult period in PSERS’ history,” said Board Chairman Richard Vague. “Her tremendous intellect, grace and determination steered the Board and staff into a new era of respectful cooperation and professionalism.”
“If anyone deserves to retire – permanently – it is Terri Sanchez,” added Vice Chairwoman Sue Lemmo. “Through her leadership, PSERS tightened its procedures and launched a strategic plan that strengthens our mission ‘to fulfill the promise of a secure retirement’ and instills ‘the highest standards of ethics and accountability’ across the agency.”
Sanchez, the agency’s 10th executive director, thanked the Board and staff for their trust.
“I have always had a strong desire to ‘make things happen’ and to leave a position or organization better than I had found it,” she said. “I hope that is how I leave PSERS for the next phase of my life and for my successor.”
###
About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new benefit options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. As of June 30, 2024, PSERS had total net position of $77.4 billion and a membership of about 255,650 active, 253,900 retired school employees and beneficiaries, and 26,330 vested inactive members.