2021 Recipients of the Outstanding Volunteer Award
We have all had the experience of working with an outstanding volunteer-one whose contributions exceed expectations and go well beyond the responsibilities of the position. Individuals who receive this award for their outstanding service contribute to superior performance, demonstrate team collaboration and effective communication, take on leadership roles, and serve as an inspiration to others.
Award Recipients
Jamala M. Arland, FSA, MAAA
Jamala currently serves as the Chairperson of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. In this role, she has efficiently and effectively led important and difficult conversations to address the SOA’s challenges with membership diversity representation. Jamala was the key contributor in finalizing the DEI Strategy Roadmap to be presented to the SOA Board of Directors. Prior to her work with DEI, Jamala served as member, Vice Chair and Chairperson of the Long Term Care Section Council.
Jill K. Carpenter, FSA
Jill was a critical contributor during the early part of the pandemic, leading both volunteers and candidates through significant changes. As Chair of the Education Executive Group, Jill pivoted the SOA’s volunteer organization to respond to urgent needs across the entire education system. Her ability to provide thoughtful yet timely responses to continuing new challenges demonstrated her unprecedented flexibility, persistence, and commitment to ensuring that the SOA could continue to support candidates and keep the education system running smoothly. In addition to her leadership, Jill personally delivered multiple webinars on Education’s response to the pandemic, which helped respond to questions, clarify actions taken by the SOA, and reassure candidates. She also facilitated multiple virtual sessions of the Fellowship Admissions Course (FAC), ensuring that deserving candidates could efficiently earn their designation during the pandemic.
Kelly M. Hennigan, FSA
Kelly Hennigan has served recently as contributing editor for The Actuary magazine, is on the SOA Continuing Professional Development (CPD) committee and is a frequent speaker/moderator at SOA industry events. She consistently creates relevant content for SOA publications and conferences and spear-headed the Non-Traditional Roles in the Actuarial Profession session at the 2020 Emerging Leaders’ Summit. Kelly continually takes on new leadership roles and inspires others (encouraging them to get involved in SOA initiatives and conferences). She also served as Member, Vice Chair and Chairperson of the Leadership and Development Section Council.
Blake A. Hill, FSA, FCIA
Blake currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Actuarial Technology & Innovation Steering Committee. In this role, he writes and provides feedback on Requests for Proposals, research proposals, research projects and the dissemination of research. Through his contributions and his leadership to bring the best from others, he has had a tremendous impact on the committee and the critically valuable research the committee is delivering. Blake is a frequent presenter and moderator at SOA events and currently serves as the Vice Chairperson of the Entrepreneurial & Innovation Section Council.
Emily Hsu, FSA, CERA, FCIA
Emily currently serves as a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee and played an important role in developing the DEI Strategic Plan, including the DEI statement, framework, priorities, actions, and success measures. She is a passionate advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and it shows in her work. In her role as a member of the Young Professional Advisory Committee, Emily co-organized the first-ever Emerging Leaders’ Summit, lowered the registration fee, and ensured that candidates and young professionals were exposed to relevant DEI issues in the current environment. She also recommended and advised on programs, services and communications targeted towards young professionals.
Richard C. Leavitt, ASA, MAAA
Rick has been integral to the completion of key SOA research on the world-changing COVID-19 pandemic. As a member of the SOA’s Group Life Experience Committee (GLEC), Rick participated on the COVID-19 Project Oversight Group, a subcommittee of the GLEC focused on delivering timely updates on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the Group Life industry. These updates came to be known as the Group Life COVID-19 Mortality Survey, which was one of the highest-profile research publications by the SOA during the 2020 year. Rick designed the workbook that would be used as a framework to process the new data each month and designed a program that allowed the SOA to create contributor-specific summaries of mortality data for all 20 companies that participated in the survey with just the click of a button. Thanks to his efforts, the process to provide timely updates on COVID-19 mortality data to contributors was very efficient. In addition to Rick’s work with the GLEC, he authored the report on 2020 Excess Deaths in the U.S. General Population by Age and Sex, which is published on the SOA website.
James A. Miles, FSA, MAAA
Jim was an integral part of the of the development team for the International Financial Reporting for Insurers (IFRI) Certificate Program. In that role, he helped to develop the learning objectives; assisted with the Request For Proposal for hiring a consultant; reviewed and commented on massive quantities of content for all 6 e-learning modules through multiple iterations of development; helped with communications and meetings with the oversight group; was a key developer for two seminars; assisted with development of the final assessment for the certificate; reviewed and commented on all pilot group feedback; served as a grader for the final assessment for the certificate for pilot group participants; and occasionally stepped in as project leader. Jim's huge contributions of volunteer time and expertise as an education expert, financial reporting professional, thought leader and teammate ensured that the educational content was well-crafted and the certificate program was developed and rolled out in a very tight timeframe.
Hassan Scott Odierno, FSA
Hassan is the Chairperson of The Actuary Editorial Sub-Committee of the Greater Asia Committee. In this role, he led the initiative to develop and establish regular editorial content for The Actuary – Asia tailored towards our SOA members in Asia and the Asia Pacific audience. Through his leadership, Hassan mentored his team members to interview senior actuaries which served as a bridge for better connection among our multi-generational membership. In addition, Hassan is one of the members of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee which focuses on the SOA’s DEI strategy for the actuarial profession. He also presents at various SOA events in Asia.
Anthony Pistilli, FSA, MAAA, CERA
Tony has been an advocate for getting young professionals more involved with SOA. He served as the Chairperson of the Young Professional Advisory Council, where he led the council to develop several engagement recommendations to encourage participation among SOA young professionals. Six of those recommendations were put forth to the SOA Board of Directors. The Board approved the recommendations, and the council has been working on implementing them. Tony also played a key role in the creation and development of SOA’s first Emerging Leaders’ Summit, which was designed to give SOA young professionals an opportunity to attend an SOA meeting and gain valuable knowledge at an affordable price. Tony has demonstrated his ongoing commitment to the SOA by providing ways for SOA young professionals to engage with the organization, advancing the profession by helping with exams, providing knowledge in the form of webcasts and articles as well as helping to organize Professional Development events.
Marianne Purushotham, FSA, MAAA
Marianne is the Chairperson of the Mortality and Longevity Oversight Committee and serves on the VBT Table Committee, the Long Term Care Experience Committee, the SOA/AAA Preferred Mortality Project Oversight Group, the Centers of Actuarial Excellence Review Committee, and the Life Mortality Improvement Working Group. In addition to her impressive record of service and participation, Marianne completes research that directly benefits members. She collaborated with the SOA on a study of COVID mortality in addition to her direct work on other experience studies. She also worked with the SOA to develop and write a series of surveys on the impact of COVID on a variety of important issues. She has been instrumental in furthering the SOA's mortality and longevity strategic research program to be recognized as a leader in mortality research. Her volunteer efforts have improved SOA studies and help produce quality, cutting-edge resources and tools for SOA members. Marianne has furthered the SOA's Mortality and Longevity strategic research program by initiating research to meet the needs of our members, enhancing the quality of research outcomes by reviewing research deliverables, rewriting report sections, and participating in the dissemination of the research as a presenter in webcasts, SOA and other industry meetings.
Marjorie A. Rosenberg, FSA
Marjorie is the Chairperson of the Health Care Cost Trends Strategic Research Committee (HCCT) and has served as a member of this committee since its inception. During her time on this committee, she has been responsible for cultivating ideas for research, creating Requests for Proposals for research projects, choosing researchers, and guiding researchers through the process via project oversight groups to the final research project. Marjorie is dedicated to ensuring a fair and objective process in selecting researchers. She was a key developer of the evaluation process which includes blinding letters of intent and full proposals to maintain the objectivity of the proposal evaluators for as long as possible. Marjorie has been a regular participant in multiple SOA research project oversight groups, providing valuable insights from her unique perspective as an academic researcher and offering helpful and relevant feedback to assist the endeavors of SOA Health Research. She has been a key contributor to generating ideas related to future research and is a significant advocate for Social Determinants of Health and related Public Health topics.
Laura J. Wiland, FSA, MAAA
Laura is a member of the Actuarial & Innovation Technology (AIT) Steering Committee where she serves as a liaison with multiple SOA Professional Interest Sections. This role is critical in ensuring the collaboration of SOA research and the work of the Professional Interest Sections. Prior to her role on the AIT Steering Committee, Laura served as a member and the Chairperson of the Actuary of the Future Section. Her contributions have been extremely valuable due to her ability to balance original ideas with the practicability of seeing them through to execution. Laura regularly steps forward to champion new initiatives and establishes smooth coordination with critical section activities.
Mercy T. Y. Yan, FSA, FCIA, MAAA
Mercy is the Chairperson of the curriculum committee for both five-hour exams on the Corporate Finance and ERM (CFE) fellowship track. In this role, she is responsible for developing the material meant to prepare candidates for roles in the offices of the CFO or CRO. In addition to her curriculum role, Mercy graded the CFE Strategic Decision Making (SDM) exam for both sessions in 2020. She was also a working member of the Case Study Teams for both Foundations of CFE and CFE SDM. During a difficult year for retaining volunteers, Mercy maintained a robust committee and was able to work closely with her team as well as the exam committee to improve the quality of the syllabi. She eased the burden of others by grading exams and helping to update the case studies. Mercy has demonstrated her strong commitment to the CFE fellowship track by leading a collaborative curriculum team and taking other roles within the track when needed.