Prepared by Public Affairs 312-751-4777

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board has named its Director of Field Service, Martha M. Barringer, to the Senior Executive Service.

The Senior Executive Service (SES) was established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 as a unique executive corps that would be separate from other Federal personnel systems. SES members are the major link between top Presidential appointees and the rest of the Federal work force, operating and overseeing nearly every government activity in approximately 75 Federal agencies.

The Railroad Retirement Board's Director of Field Service since July 2000, Ms. Barringer currently oversees the RRB's network of 53 field offices that serve the public nationwide. An RRB employee since 1978, she previously served as Director of Resource Management Center, and as Director of Debt Management in the agency's former Bureau of Unemployment and Sickness Insurance.

Ms. Barringer is a graduate of the College of St. Benedict (BA 1976) in St. Joseph, Minnesota, and is a resident of Chicago.

An independent Federal agency headquartered in Chicago, the RRB administers the $8.5 billion-a-year benefit programs provided under the Federal Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Insurance Acts covering the nation's railroad workforce and their families.

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