Janet L. Yellen

Janet L. Yellen is a distinguished fellow in residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution—a position she formerly held from 2018 to 2021. Dr. Yellen previously served as the 78th secretary of the Treasury Department of the United States (2021-2025), chair of the Federal Reserve Board (2014-2018), vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board (2010-2014), president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (2004-2010), and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (1997-1999).

Dr. Yellen is a professor emerita at the University of California at Berkeley where she was the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and a professor of economics (1999-2006) and has been a faculty member since 1980. Prior to Berkeley, she was an assistant professor of economics at Harvard University (1971-1976), an economist at the Federal Reserve Board (1977-1978), and a lecturer at the London School of Economics (1978-1988).

From 2020 to 2021, Dr. Yellen served as president of the American Economic Association. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Council on Foreign Relations. She was also a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council. Dr. Yellen has served on the advisory boards of the Bloomberg New Economic Forum, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth Steering Committee. She was elected to the Yale Corporation as an alumni fellow in 2000, serving until 2006. 

Dr. Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967 and received her PhD in economics from Yale University in 1971. Yale awarded her the Wilbur Cross Medal in 1997 for distinguished achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and public service and an Honorary Doctor of Social Science degree in 2015. In 1998, Brown awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and in 2000, Bard College awarded her a Doctor of Humane Letters. She has also received honorary degrees from New York University, the London School of Economics, the University of Baltimore, and the University of Warwick.

Her scholarship has covered a range of macroeconomic issues, with a special focus on the causes, mechanisms, and implications of unemployment. She has authored numerous articles, as well as “The Fabulous Decade: Macroeconomic Lessons from the 1990s,” with Alan Blinder (Century Foundation Press, 2001).