HARRISBURG, PA – The Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) welcomed three new trustees and a new vice chair of a board committee at its public meeting on Friday.
- Mr. Jason Moore, an economics and AP U.S. history teacher
- State Senator Jarrett Coleman
- Dr. Carrie Rowe, Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education
“It is our honor to officially welcome these fine public servants to our board,” said PSERS Chair Richard Vague and Vice Chair Sue Lemmo. “We are now at our full 15-member complement, and we look forward to working alongside our new trustees to continue the board’s prudent oversight of the system.”
Moore is an economics and AP U.S. history teacher at Valley Jr-Sr High School in the New Kensington-Arnold School District in Westmoreland County. He ran unopposed in a special election to fill a vacancy on the PSERS Board created by a resignation and was elected by acclamation on Friday. As a trustee, Moore will represent active-certified PSERS members and will serve the remaining nine months of the vacant term, as well as a new three-year term beginning in January. He resides in Plum, Allegheny County.
Coleman was appointed by Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward to represent the Senate Republican Caucus on the PSERS Board. He was elected in 2022 to the 16th Senatorial District, which covers parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. Coleman chairs the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee and is Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. He is also an airline pilot and a former school board member in the Parkland School District in Lehigh County.
Rowe is Gov. Josh Shapiro’s nominee to lead the Education Department. Prior to her nomination, she served as the department’s deputy secretary of elementary and secondary education, and as superintendent of Beaver Area School District in western Pennsylvania. Rowe began her career as a Spanish teacher and, as an administrator, has focused on ensuring fairness and justice in resource allocation, as well as eliminating institutional barriers to access and opportunity.
Additionally, Trustee Brian Reiser was elected Thursday as Vice Chair of the Finance and Actuarial Committee. The committee assists the board with its fiduciary oversight of system budgets and various statutorily required actuarial matters, as well as member contribution rates.
“As a trustee, I am so excited to take on this leadership role for the board,” Reiser said Friday, “and as a math teacher by trade, I cannot wait to delve deeper into the actuarial mathematics and spreadsheets that come before the committee.”
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About the Board of Trustees
The 15-member Board of Trustees is an independent administrative board of the Commonwealth. The Board stands in a fiduciary relationship to PSERS’ members regarding investments and disbursements of the system’s funds. The Board’s other functions outlined in the Public School Employees’ Retirement Code include certifying contribution rates, authorizing the system’s actuarial valuation and independent audit, publishing an annual financial statement, and overseeing the operational activities performed by the system’s executive director and chief investment officer.
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 256,000 active, 254,000 annuitants and beneficiaries, and 27,000 vested inactive members.