Ms. Jo Anne Barnhart

Jo Anne Barnhart has been on the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation Board since June 2019. She served as Commissioner of Social Security for the United States from 2001-2007. Prior to her nomination as Commissioner by President George W. Bush, Barnhart served for more than four years as a member of the Social Security Advisory Board. During the same period, she managed her own political and public policy consulting company. 

Other posts include serving in the administration of President George H. Bush as the first Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department for Health & Social Service. In that position she was responsible for overseeing the nation’s major cash assistance and social services programs including the First Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and as Assistant Secretary for Family Support. Since her departure from Social Security, Barnhart has consulted domestically and internationally on program policy, design and governmental relations. She recently served as an adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where she taught a course on Designing Social Security Systems.