Early-career actuaries explain how Academy membership sets them up for opportunities in professional engagement and public policy impact, which can significantly shape an actuary’s career path.
Actuarial credentials mark a significant professional milestone, but for many early-career actuaries, joining the Academy represents an important next step in their professional journey. While earning Associate or Fellow designations from the Casualty Actuarial Society or Society of Actuaries demonstrates technical mastery, Academy membership paves the way for expanded professional engagement and public policy impact—opportunities that can significantly advance an actuary’s career path.
Finding Your Professional Community
For Emma Casehart, senior managing actuary at Allstate, Academy involvement began through a personal connection. “I was introduced to the Academy by a colleague on an existing Academy committee,” she explains. Her interest in the intersection of climate change and insurance led her to volunteer on the P/C Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee, where she helped initiate research on large, compound disasters such as fires following droughts.
This initial engagement sparked a passion for professional writing. “That work was the start of my path in writing for a broad, professional audience, and I loved it,” she shares. Her enthusiasm led to further involvement as vice chair of the newly created Homeowners Insurance Task Force.
Spencer Look, MAAA, FSA, who works at the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies, had a different motivation. What initially stood out to him was “the range of resources available on topics outside of my immediate focus area,” Look says. “I joined the Academy to stay engaged with the broader actuarial community. It has helped me gain perspective on broader industry issues and helped me contextualize my work. I’ve personally found it very valuable to learn about adjacent topics in my role researching policy.”
Bridging Expertise and Impact
Whether early in their careers or stepping into new roles, actuaries often find that Academy involvement helps connect their technical expertise to broader public policy issues and long-term professional development.
“The Academy is focused on public policy issues that affect everyone,” Casehart notes. “I want to work in a profession that makes an impact. It can be easy to see our work as unconnected to the public good, but our risk management is closely tied with questions of insurance affordability, availability, and public policy.”
For Maria Carnovale, MAAA, FSA, senior AVP and head of Pension Risk Transfer Pricing at Nationwide, Academy resources proved invaluable during a significant career transition. “I spent the first few years of my career as a traditional retirement consulting actuary, where I developed considerable expertise and responsibility,” she says. “Then I decided to take a risk and career pivot when an insurance company hired me to develop and price institutional annuities, like pension risk transfer and in-plan guarantees. While my retirement background was instrumental in this work, I had a lot to learn about the life side of things.”
When Carnovale found herself in this challenging new role, she discovered that the Academy resources were invaluable. “I had to adapt to being the sole retirement actuary on my new team, tasked with using that expertise to set assumptions and price products,” she says. “This was a big transition coming from a leading retirement consulting firm where I had a multitude of brilliant and experienced colleagues as backstop. I distinctly remember leveraging ASOPs, and practice notes published by the Pension Committee as a resource to help validate my instincts in my work and educate my new colleagues on relevant retirement topics.”
A broader perspective can help actuaries contextualize their technical work within larger societal issues. For Casehart, Academy involvement helped her recognize the link between her actuarial expertise and critical public issues at hand. “Actuaries are storytellers,” she observes, “and the Academy lets me practice telling the story of how a clear-eyed view of risk is valuable to the public.”
Building a Strong Network
One challenge many early-career actuaries face is developing a professional network beyond their immediate workplace. Academy involvement provides structured opportunities to meet peers and senior professionals from across the industry.
“One of the best things about my volunteering has been expanding my circle beyond my company,” Casehart shares. “I am not a natural networker. It takes time and sustained effort for me to meet people and maintain professional connections. I think plenty of actuaries can relate to that. Volunteering is an easy way to have a shared moment of connection. When you both are volunteers, you are no longer strangers.”
Look has found similar benefits in connecting with experienced actuaries. “Working with experienced actuaries has been very valuable,” he says. “I’ve gained a better understanding of how defined benefit actuaries view and approach retirement topics. This has been especially helpful, as my default approach to the same topics might differ given my life actuarial background.”
Putting Resources to Work
Beyond networking, the Academy offers numerous resources and events that support professional development of actuaries at all stages of their careers, including those who are starting out.
Casehart particularly values the Academy’s annual Hill Visits. “I find the Academy Hill Visits to be one of the best ways I volunteer,” she says. “Through those visits, I meet new actuaries, reconnect with old friends, and share our actuarial perspective to decision makers. Visiting Capitol Hill reminds me why I do what I do—to make a difference.” Read “Hill Visits Let Volunteers Get the Word Out About the Academy” on the academy website to learn more about this year’s Hill Visits.
Look points to specific publications that have directly supported his work. “One specific publication that I found very helpful was the Academy’s issue brief on collective defined contribution plans,” he says. “The information on retirement program design from a sample of other countries was particularly useful for my work researching lifetime income within retirement plans.”
Committee participation has also provided Look specialized knowledge. He volunteered on the Defined Contribution Subcommittee of the Pension Committee, which recently published the issue brief, Decumulation Strategies: Creating Lifetime Income from Defined Contribution Plans. “It was very relevant to my work on researching lifetime income solutions for defined contribution retirement plans,” Look says.
Carnovale has come full circle in her relationship with Academy resources, from relying on them earlier in her career to helping shape them as a volunteer. “A couple of years after getting my FSA and joining the Academy, I decided I wanted to volunteer within the actuarial profession in some way,” she says. “I replied to the Academy’s annual call for volunteers and ended up as a member of the Pension Committee. This was an especially rewarding experience as I was able to shape and contribute to the very practice notes I had relied on a couple of years prior.”
First Steps in Volunteering
For early-career actuaries considering Academy involvement, Casehart emphasizes the importance of finding specific volunteer opportunities that align with personal interests.
“If you are considering joining, have a volunteer opportunity in mind you want to contribute to,” she advises. “Committees are always eager to welcome new volunteers to participate in the process of research, writing, and sharing information with the profession and the public.”
Look found that committee work helped clarify his professional direction. “Joining the Lifetime Income Risk Joint Committee was very beneficial to my career,” he says. “When I joined, I was trying to figure out my long-term focus. The committee’s projects helped me realize that I wanted to concentrate on work related to how actuarial products can help consumers, which led me into research.”
Carnovale’s volunteer work led to leadership opportunities. “Eventually I was asked to chair and staff a new subcommittee specifically focused on actuarial aspects of defined contribution plans, like lifetime income,” she says. “I am passionate about retirement in general, and specifically the role actuaries can and should play in designing, monitoring, and improving retirement systems and plans, so I jumped at the chance. I pulled together a group of actuaries who have experience working with defined contribution plans from different perspectives and industries, including both retirement and life actuaries.”
For Carnovale, the most rewarding aspect has been unexpected. “My favorite way to volunteer with the Academy has been through its public policy work,” she says. “I have always had a personal interest in public policy, but I never imagined that I could get involved in that space through my career as an actuary. It has been exciting and rewarding to represent the Academy and inform lawmakers and governmental agencies within my areas of expertise.”
Balancing volunteer work with career demands takes intention and planning, but the effort pays off—volunteering supports professional development.
“As I take on more responsibilities at the Academy, I learn skills that help me at work,” Casehart explains. “Volunteers are busy with their lives and careers, so it can be hard to find the time to write and offer thought leadership. I’ve learned how to bring volunteer teams together to contribute to a cause we all believe in.”
She contrasts this experience with typical workplace responsibilities. “Our ‘real’ work can often be structured, with processes and procedures that must be accomplished,” she says. “Volunteering is more free form, but I have learned to create a structure around volunteering to help get our thoughts onto a page and out into the world.”
Looking Forward
As they consider their future career paths, these early-career actuaries see continued Academy involvement as increasingly valuable.
“I know that as I grow and develop my career, it only gets more important to understand broad industry trends, identify future drivers of insured loss, and explore ways to mitigate risk,” Casehart says. “I’m looking forward to meeting other actuaries, sharing my experience, and learning from them.”
Look envisions the Academy “continuing to be a resource for staying informed, building connections, and gaining insight as I take on new challenges and broaden my role.”
Carnovale encourages others to follow a similar path. “I would encourage early-career actuaries to not only join the Academy, but to raise their hands and get involved in volunteer work,” she says. “Doing so can set you on a path to becoming a thought leader within your industry.”
For Casehart, Academy involvement underscores how actuaries can use their influence and expertise to create meaningful change. “Actuaries have a unique blend of technical and business knowledge that gives us influence and credibility,” she says. “We are known for our professionalism and thoughtfulness, and we have a responsibility to use that reputation to affect change. The Academy supports the combined efforts of the actuarial profession to affect change.”
For early-career actuaries, Academy membership offers more than just another credential—it provides pathways to broader professional impact, accelerated skills development, and connections that can shape an entire career. Research consistently shows that professionals who actively engage in their professional associations during their early career years develop broader perspectives, stronger professional networks, and more diverse skill sets than those who remain isolated within their workplace environments.