Janet Yellen

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American economist Janet Yellen.

U.S. Federal Reserve

Janet Yellenis an American economist, who was the chair (2014–18) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (commonly known as the Fed), the central bank of the United States, and secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (2021–25). She was the first woman to hold each of those posts, as well as the first person in U.S. history to lead the Federal Reserve, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Treasury Department.

Yellen graduated summa cum laude in economics from Brown University (1967) and received a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University (1971). She began her academic career as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard University (1971–76) before working as an economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (1977–78). She later lectured at the London School of Economics and Political Science (1978–80), before joining the faculty of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980. At Berkeley, she conducted research and taught macroeconomics at all levels, receiving numerous teaching awards and holding key academic positions, including Bernard T. Rocca, Jr. Professor of International Business and Trade (1992) and Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Economics (1999). She later became professor emeritus at the Haas School.

Yellen’s career in public service began in 1994 when she took a leave of absence from Berkeley to serve as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a position she held until 1997. She then chaired President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers (1997–99) while concurrently leading the Economic Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Yellen returned to Berkeley in 1999 and taught there until 2004, when she was appointed president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In 2010, she was appointed vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Fed in 2010. Three years later President Barack Obama nominated her to lead the Federal Reserve System. Her nomination generated some controversy, mainly because many Republicans believed she would emphasize reducing unemployment over controlling inflation. Nevertheless, the U.S. Senate confirmed her in January 2014 by a vote of 56 to 26, the smallest margin for a Federal Reserve System chief in history. Her four-year term began February 3, 2014.

Once in office, Yellen began the process of reversing some of the policies that had been enacted in response to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Notably, she oversaw a program to sell Treasury and mortgage bonds that the Fed had purchased to stimulate the economy. Her tenure was marked by job and wage growth, achieved while maintaining low interest rates. Yellen left the Fed in February 2018 after President Donald Trump declined to nominate her for a second term. She was succeeded by Jerome H. Powell.

In 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced he would nominate Yellen as secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She was confirmed by the Senate in January 2021 by a vote of 84 to 15, becoming the first woman to hold the position. During her tenure, Yellen played a key role in managing the U.S. economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing inflation, and navigating international economic challenges such as debt relief and U.S.–China trade relations.

Yellen holds an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brown University and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Bard College. Throughout her academic career, she has written extensively on a wide variety of topics, particularly macroeconomics and unemployment dynamics. She is married to George A. Akerlof, a cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001.