UMass Boston has named Tyler Compton, Esq., interim director of the Pension Action Center in the Gerontology Institute. Compton, who has served as the center’s staff attorney since 2019, is stepping in for Anna-Marie Tabor, Esq., who has accepted a one-year visiting faculty position at the University of Massachusetts School of Law.

The Pension Action Center offers free legal counseling and works to recover retirement benefits for workers and retirees who live or worked in New England and Illinois. In fiscal year 2022, the  center served 530 clients and recovered nearly $2 million in retirement benefits.

“I’m excited to continue our efforts to reach more communities and people,” Compton says. “We’ve been reaching out to more rural pockets of New England, places where not as many people may be online and know of our services. The Pension Action Center is constantly growing—most recently we’ve expanded a bit into fraud and scam prevention. We want to help people protect their money.”

Compton first learned of PAC in 2015 when she was hired as a legal intern following her second year of law school at Boston College. “I was like most young people then, I’m afraid, where retirement was the last thing on my mind,” she says. “It’s an entire area of law that I hadn’t focused on or even knew existed.”

Compton continued her internship through her final year of law school. After graduation, she worked in the elder law unit for Vermont Legal Aid on issues including housing preservation, Social Security appeals, Medicaid eligibility, debt collection defense, and aid to victims of financial exploitation and abuse. She was looking to return to Massachusetts when the staff attorney position opened at PAC.

Her nearly four years as staff attorney prepared her well for stepping into the interim leadership position, Compton says, because her work has been so directly involved with helping clients. “I’ve been supervising our interns, who are the first point of contact through our help line. Then I’ve figured out who on the team should take each case. From this experience and from working with Anna, I’ve been able to see all the moving parts of what we do, which helps me explain all the great work we are doing and translate our work into a narrative for potential funders.”

“Tyler brings a wealth of experience critical to the success of PAC’s mission,” says Jan Mutchler, PhD, director of the Gerontology Institute. “We are thrilled that under her leadership, PAC will continue its growth and success in meeting its mission of helping clients enjoy the financial security in their retirement that they have earned”