Jennifer Cronenberg, Interim CEO

During NOSSCR’s 2026 Spring Conference, it was my privilege to recommend Tom Krause for the honor of Lifetime NOSSCR Membership. The Board unanimously supported this recommendation, and I was thrilled to announce Tom’s new membership status during NOSSCR’s Nonprofit Meeting.

Tom’s contributions to NOSSCR are too voluminous to properly count, and we are thrilled to know that he will now be a permanent part of this great organization. Here’s a reminder of Tom’s journey with NOSSCR in his own words:

I started working for the Legal Services Corp. of Iowa (LSCI) on November 29, 1982. There were no computers in the office, but lots of books. You know, lots of pieces of paper bound together with leather covers.

I took three weeks off for an Iowa bar review course where I met a guy named Ray Cebula, who was starting in our Mason City office.[2] After that, I took the Iowa Bar – 2 1/2 days, all essay questions, and graded immediately. We finished the bar exam at noon on Wednesday, learned the results on Thursday evening, and were admitted on Friday morning. I’ve heard the bar exam has changed a little since then.

I first learned about Social Security Disability benefits at Legal Services. One of my first assignments was to help draft the brief in Baugus v. Sec’y of Health & Hum. Servs.[3] I drafted one small part of the brief and can’t remember my issue. Fortunately, Chief Judge Donald Lay and Judge Richard Arnold, two excellent judges friendly to our clients, were on the panel. They reversed the ALJ’s decision and awarded benefits.

This was an exciting time to learn Social Security law. To put everything in context, this was the height of the Reagan Administration’s efforts to cut off as many disability claimants as possible.[4] In 1982, the Eighth Circuit ruled the Secretary of Health and Human Services did not exceed his statutory authority in issuing the Medical-Vocational guidelines (the Grids), including a provision limiting the duty to call a vocational expert.[5] Congress passed the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984,[6] establishing the Medical Improvement Standard for Continuing Disability Reviews and requiring SSA to consider pain as a factor in determining disability. Later that year, the Eighth Circuit decided Polaski v. Heckler.[7] The Polaski decision defined the pain standard in the Eighth Circuit and was cited in virtually every ALJ decision for the next 30+ years. In 1986, the Supreme Court decided Bowen v. City of New York,[8] outlining the requirements for class actions against Social Security. There was a lot to learn!

One day, I was looking around our library. I don’t remember what I was looking for, but I remember what I found – a 3-ring binder with copies of the NOSSCR Forum. I had never heard of NOSSCR, but the articles looked interesting. I should note that our program had one subscription to the Forum. Our Central Office photocopied the Forum every month and mailed out copies to the 10 Regional Offices. Every month, our secretary circulated the latest copy of the Forum, then punched holes in it and put it in the binder. I read every issue from cover to cover.

A few years later, LSCI’s Social Security Task Force met in Des Moines. A private attorney named Bob Pratt gave an articulate, knowledgeable, moving, and insightful presentation. And he spoke of the virtues of NOSSCR membership![9] I wanted to join NOSSCR, but it was too expensive for our legal services group (and, at that time, NOSSCR did not offer a reduced rate for non-profit members).

Fast forward a few more years to 1995. I left LSCI and went into private practice. One of the first things I did was join NOSSCR as a Sustaining Member. My first NOSSCR conference was amazing! I had never been to a conference like that and had never been to Seattle!

While in private practice, I litigated and settled a class action against the Iowa Disability Determination Services (DDS) that I had filed before leaving LSCI.[10] I also filed a similar class action against the Nebraska DDS.[11] A young attorney from Gateway Legal Services came up to see me and talk about those class actions. That’s when I first met David Camp. More about that later.

I became a fervent NOSSCR supporter, attended many NOSSCR conferences, spoke at many NOSSCR conferences, and served on the NOSSCR Board for eight years. When I left private practice in 2018 to work for the Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS), I maintained my NOSSCR Sustaining Membership. 

Tom then joined NOSSCR for a year as our Litigation Director. This is where I first had the opportunity to meet and learn from Tom. In addition to his great legal mind, his near monthly contributions to our Forum, and his ongoing willingness to mentor young attorneys, he is also a walking encyclopedia of NOSSCR’s history. If you are looking for an old presentation from one of NOSSCR’s conferences, chances are Tom can tell you when the presentation occurred, who gave it, and how to locate the materials. He is a kind and generous man and we are better as an organization knowing we can count him as a lifetime member.

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