How Meketa is Shaping the Future of Public Pensions with Continuing Education
NCPERS presented the inaugural Pension Partners of the Year Awards during the 2025 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Denver. These awards recognize the Service Provider members who have helped make continuing education exciting, valuable, and accessible to public pension staff, trustees, and industry stakeholders.
NCPERS presented the inaugural Pension Partners of the Year Awards during the 2025 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Denver. These awards recognize the Service Provider members who have helped make continuing education exciting, valuable, and accessible to public pension staff, trustees, and industry stakeholders.
Meketa Investment Group was recognized with the 2025 Pension Partners of the Year Award for their team's extensive contributions to the NCPERS Accredited Fiduciary (NAF) program. David Sancewich, Managing Principal/Consultant, and Judy Chambers, Managing Principal/Private Markets Consultant, have served as lead instructors for the investment and finance-focused portions of the program since it began nearly a decade ago.
NCPERS Accredited Fiduciary (NAF) program is specifically designed for public pension trustees and staff seeking to master key strategies needed for effective governance. The program is divided into two parts—NAF 1&2: Governance & Finance and NAF 3&4: Risk Management and Human Capital. Learn more and register for the upcoming NAF program.
We spoke with David and Judy about their experiences as NAF instructors, predictions for the investment and finance landscape, and the importance of continuing education for public pensions.
Q: Tell us about your day-to-day roles at Meketa Investment Group.
David Sancewich: I am a General Consultant, so I work with clients and oversee their total portfolios. I work on asset allocation, portfolio construction, risk management and provide market overviews so that clients stay aware about how capital markets current events may impact their portfolios.
Judy Chambers: On a daily basis, I work with different clients to assist them with building out their private markets portfolios. In doing so, I monitor the investment managers currently in their portfolios and evaluate new investment managers in private equity, venture capital and infrastructure for client portfolios.
Q: Do you think that it's important for public pensions to prioritize continuing education for their staff and trustees? If so, why?
Judy: Continuous education is extremely important for public pension plan trustees and staff as it aids in providing exposure to current market trends, asset allocation, policies, governance and portfolio construction topics. Trustees and staff are stronger stewards and fiduciaries with continuous education, webinars and conferences.
Q: How has the Finance module of NCPERS Accredited Fiduciary (NAF) program evolved in your nearly decade-long tenure as instructors?
David: The NAF program is stronger every year because the class participants play an important role in both the conversation and education. The program allows trustees and staff members to engage with other pension plan representatives from across the country, and they all learn from each other as no two public pension plans are the same. This classroom environment with other fiduciaries is a rare opportunity and the conversations are informative and yet casual. We are always surprised about how certain plans are similar and other plans are very different.
The time spent on asset allocation and risk buckets is always the most interesting as it helps the participants to think in depth about their own portfolios, how they are constructed, and what types of underlying risks they have in their portfolios. The challenging part of the program is the time constraint as the class could go on for many more hours.
Q: Looking ahead, do you have any predictions for the public pension finance and investment landscape over the next five years?
David and Judy: The investment landscape will continue to bring challenges and opportunities to public pension plans in the future. Our goal is to ensure that trustees and staff have the proper tools to evaluate these challenges as they lead their plans. It is important for staff and trustees to maintain their focus on protecting the pension assets while evaluating new opportunities as they evolve.