Balanced practical curiosity—I appreciate Urban's work on retirement security and outcomes for families in the US. It's my pleasure to work with fellow experts on knotty and useful issues that have the power to change lives.
Lisa Massena is a nonresident fellow in the Family and Financial Well-Being Division at the Urban Institute. Her areas of expertise include wealth and financial well-being and retirement security. Massena's work centers on retirement security policy, government-facilitated savings programs, and expanding access to retirement, education, and emergency savings for low- and moderate-income workers and families.
As founder and principal of Massena Associates LLC, Massena advises nonprofit, government, and private-sector clients on policy strategy, program design, and communications related to retirement savings and financial security. She publishes Retirement Security Matters, a newsletter for retirement policy professionals covering state and federal program developments, industry innovation, and legislative tracking, and she is a frequent speaker and writer on retirement savings issues and leadership.
Massena was the founding executive director of OregonSaves, the nation’s first state auto-IRA program. She led development of the operational foundation for a model now adopted in more than a third of US states. Her work has helped millions of workers who previously lacked workplace retirement plan access begin saving for retirement. Massena’s career in financial services includes work for State Street, Ascensus, mPower, and the brokerage firms Dain Bosworth and Boettcher & Company.
Massena received her BA from Portland State University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
