California's Teacher Retirement Plan Adopts IOA Standards

The California State Teachers' Retirement System has updated its website to reflect the adoption of IOA Standards for its Ombuds. CalSTRS is the largest teachers' retirement fund in the U.S. with nearly a million enrolled members and a portfolio of more than $250 billion. The CalSTRS Office of the Ombuds, which created by legislation in 1993, has generally acted as an Executive Ombuds by advocating for CalSTRS members. Now, for the first time, the CalSTRS Ombuds will practice to IOA Standards of independence, impartiality, confidentiality, and informality. 

The change may have been precipitated by personnel change in the office: Mark Gini was appointed the Ombuds in January 2021; and Christina Nguyen became the Ombuds Coordinator in October 2021. Gini has worked at CalSTRS for the past 15 years, most recently as an Assistant Director of the Service Retirement Division. He graduated from California State University-Sacramento. Nguyen also moved from another position at CalSTRS: a Program Analyst. Prior to that, she worked in the California State Controller's Office for eight years. She earned her BA at UC Davis. (CalSTRS Ombuds; LinkedIn Gini; LinkedIn Nguyen; Cal. Ed. Code § 22302.)

Update: Within hours of this post, the CalSTRS Ombuds webpage was firewalled behind a password.

Update 3/4/22: The website is back online as of today.