Shirley Chater | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait | |
| 12th Commissioner of the Social Security Administration | |
| In office October 8, 1993 – February 28, 1997 | |
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Gwendolyn King Lawrence Thompson (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Kenneth S. Apfel John Callahan (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Shirley Jean Sears July 30, 1932 Shamokin, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (BSN) University of California, San Francisco (MSN) University of California, Berkeley (PhD) |
Shirley Sears Chater (born July 30, 1932) is an American nurse, educational administrator and government official who served as the 12th commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 1993 until 1997. In the 1970s and 1980s, Chater held faculty appointments in nursing and education at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. She worked as an administrator at UCSF and then worked for two national education councils.
Chater was president of Texas Woman's University from 1986 to 1993. She left TWU to serve as Commissioner of Social Security from 1993 to 1997. She helped the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation develop the Executive Nurse Fellows program. Chater was named a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing in 2000.