Martin Gerry Working For Ticket To Work Contractor

Martin Gerry was former Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart's right hand man at Social Security. Gerry tried to hang on after Barnhart left, but was abruptly fired by Barnhart's replacement, Michael Astrue, at about the same time Astrue decided to drop Disability Service Improvement, Barnart's and Gerry's ill-fated grand plan to rescue the Social Security disability programs. Gerry's firing included being marched out of the building by security guards.

From the Washington Times:

About 70 percent of the estimated 14 million Americans with severe disabilities are unemployed. Martin Gerry's job is to find ways to reduce this unemployment rate.

Mr. Gerry is executive managing director of a newly created institute within the national nonprofit agency NISH — Creating Employment for People with Severe Disabilities. A severe disability is classified as a physical or mental impairment that seriously limits one or more functional capacities. ...

Established in 1974, NISH provides job opportunities through federal contracts for people with severe disabilities.

The NISH Institute on Economic Empowerment will conduct research to see how job opportunities can be expanded and improved for people with severe disabilities. As director, Mr. Gerry will lead a team of six in establishing the institute and developing research priorities.

He said one of the main challenges of his job will be determining those priorities.

NISH is a major subcontractor in the Ticket to Work program, which aims to put Social Security disability recipients back to work, but which is mostly wasting money.