SSA Commissioners

Don I. Wortman

December 13, 1977 to October 4, 1978 (Acting)

Don Wortman, a native of Lakota, Iowa, received a bachelor's degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Minnesota.

Mr. Wortman began his Federal career in 1953 with the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, DC. He was with the AEC for twelve years working primarily in the Division of Military Application, preparing budgets for nuclear weapons production and testing. In 1965 he left the AEC to join the Office of Economic Opportunity as the Deputy Assistant Director for Research, Plans, Programs, and Evaluation, and by 1972 had become the Office's Controller.

Mr. Wortman was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Systems at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1973. In early 1977 he was named Acting Administrator of the Social Rehabilitation Service until it was abolished under the 1977 DHEW reorganization plan and became part of the newly created Health Care Finance Administration, of which he was its first Administrator.

In June 1977, Mr. Wortman was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and six months later he assumed the position of Acting Commissioner when SSA's former Commissioner resigned. Mr. Wortman served as SSA's Acting Commissioner until October 1978, when he resigned to take a deputy directorship job with the Central Intelligence Agency.