President Barack Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen yesterday to head the Federal Reserve Board of Governors sparked celebration at the University of California’s Haas School of Business, where she was a member of the faculty for 26 years. If confirmed, Yellen will succeed current Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, who will step down in January 2014.
Yellen taught macroeconomics at Haas from 1980 to 2006 and was named a Berkeley Fellow earlier this year for her contributions to the school. While at Haas, Yellen’s research focused on unemployment and labor markets, monetary and fiscal policies and international trade and investment policy. In addition to her decades on the Haas faculty, Yellen has served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors since 2010, was president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco from 2004 through 2010 and also chaired President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999.
“I could not think of a sharper mind or a more thoughtful citizen to lead the world’s most influential central bank in its effort to regain the economy’s full potential,” Berkeley-Haas Dean Rich Lyons said in a statement. The Federal Reserve Board is responsible for setting economic policy to promote price stability and employment, which Yellen has described as “not just statistics to me.”
“She is part of a rich and proud history of Haas faculty who continue to serve the nation at the highest levels of government,” Lyons continued. Indeed, she is one of several female UC Berkeley professors who have helped increase diversity among the White House’s primarily male circle of economic advisers. Haas Professor Laura Tyson also chaired the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, and economics Professor Christina Romer held the same role for four years in the Obama administration.
Learn more about Janet Yellen’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
