Mary Jordan, Senior Benefit Specialist

Mary has worked for MPERS in several capacities since joining the system in October 1997. She began her career in retirement as a senior secretary and shortly after she transitioned to the payroll section of MPERS. This gave her extensive knowledge in how prior service credit is granted, how retirement benefits are calculated, how payroll information is received from the employers and how that information translates into the monthly benefits that members receive after retirement. She has worked with software providers to implement the legislative changes for the Year 2000 Plan and the 2011 Tier. In between the plan changes, MPERS began the multiyear, multiphase process of implementing a new pension administration system. She was a member of the selection committee that ultimately selected PensionGold. The new pension system was able to combine the data from the previous mainframe system as well as several Microsoft Access databases into one functional system. This provided one depository for all pension-related data and a simplified method of retrieving data. Maintenance of this system is an ongoing project with changes in pension laws and periodic maintenance.

Benefit specialists are many times the first faces and voices of MPERS with the members. All of the knowledge Mary has obtained through her long tenure with MPERS allows her to successfully interact with members.

Mary holds a Certificate of Achievement in Public Plan Policy Employee Pension issued by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration at William Woods University in May 2020.