Katie Savin

Katie Savin (they/them) is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento, and the inaugural Ford Fellow in Disability Policy Research at the National Academy of Social Insurance. They earned their PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and their MSW at Hunter College, City University of New York. Their research examines disability policy and administrative burden in U.S. social insurance programs, with a particular focus on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Using community-informed qualitative and mixed methods, Katie centers the lived experiences of disabled people to understand how policy design shapes access to economic security, work-related decision-making, and trust in public institutions. Their scholarship is informed by their background in medical social work and their own experience as an SSDI recipient. Katie’s work has informed public reporting and policy conversations on SSI and SSDI.