The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) appointed Jebby Rasputnis as its Director of Programs, effective November 16.
Ms. Rasputnis oversees all agency operations to process and pay benefits administered by the agency. These include retirement, survivor, disability, unemployment, and sickness benefits. She is also responsible for the agency’s nationwide Medicare contract and serves on the RRB’s Executive Committee, which is responsible for day-to-day operations of the agency and making policy recommendations to the three-member Board.
At the time of her appointment, she had been Acting Director of Programs since June, having joined the agency as Deputy Director of Programs in March 2024. She succeeds Arturo Cardenas, who retired in March with 34 years of federal service.
Before working at the RRB, Ms. Rasputnis served as Executive Director of the Office of Appellate Operations and Chair of the Appeals Council at the Social Security Administration (SSA). She received her initial appointment to the Senior Executive Service in February 2020.
Prior to working at SSA, Ms. Rasputnis began her federal career with the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she held several successive senior counsel positions, including service as an Acting Veterans Law Judge.
Ms. Rasputnis received her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. She worked in the private sector in communications and policy prior to attending law school and later entering federal service.
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The RRB, an independent federal agency headquartered in Chicago, pays more than $14.6 billion each year in benefits under the federal Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts, which cover the nation’s railroad workers and their families.