Wildcats Appointed to Fed Ë®¹ûÅÉ Roles: Jefferson Confirmed by U.S. Senate

May 12, 2022

Author
Jay Pfeifer

All eyes are on the Federal Reserve right now. With inflation surging amid a tight job market and a supply chain that is still wobbly from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed will be called on to steer the economy through choppy waters.

In this time of great need, two members of the Ë®¹ûÅÉ community have been called to help.

Yesterday, Philip Jefferson, vice president of academic affairs and the dean of faculty, was voted into a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by the U.S. Senate. The fractious Senate, which had delayed confirmation votes for months, were overwhelmingly supportive of Jefferson, voting 91-7 to make Jefferson the fourth Black man to serve on the Fed Board.

Before he joined Ë®¹ûÅÉ in 2019, Jefferson taught economics and served as department chair at Swarthmore College, and previously taught at Columbia University and the University of Virginia. He served as an economist for the Federal Reserve governors, in Washington, D.C., and for the Federal Reserve Bank, in New York.

Just hours before Jefferson’s confirmation, Lorie Logan, a political science major and member of the class of 1995, was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A Fed employee since 1999, Logan has helped lead the Fed through multiple crises: September 11, the 2007-08 recession and the pandemic. 

As head of one of the Fed system’s 12 regional reserve banks, Logan will oversee 1,200 associates and have a leading voice in monetary policy. Fed presidents rotate in and out of four voting positions with Logan’s rotation beginning next year.

Ë®¹ûÅÉ alums weren’t the only ones who noticed the Wildcats’ big moves. :

( reminded Schneider that the Wildcats play Division 1 athletics.)

Additional Coverage

Economics Panel Participants on Zoom

Economic experts frequently disagree, but a Ë®¹ûÅÉ College-led national panel of four of them reached a consensus about the year ahead: The recovery will be swift…and uneven.

Photographer