Core faculty

Susan M. Collins

Edward M. Gramlich Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Economics (on leave with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)

Susan M. Collins is the CEO and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She is on extended leave from the University of Michigan, where she is the Edward M. Gramlich Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, professor of economics, and former dean of the Ford School (2007-17), as well as former provost and executive vice president for academic affairs (2020-22). Before coming to Michigan, she was on the economics faculty at Georgetown University and Harvard University, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (where she retains a nonresident affiliation). She is an international economist whose research interests center on understanding and fostering economic growth in industrial, emerging market, and developing countries. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She served a term as president of the Association for Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) from 2013-15 and, earlier in her career, as a senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Collins received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in economics from Harvard University and her doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Educational background

  • PhD in economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • BA in economics, Harvard University

Professional affiliations

  • President and CEO, Boston Federal Reserve Bank
  • Former member, Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  • Member, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research

Recent publications

"Accounting for Growth: Comparing China and India," (with Barry Bosworth) Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 22, no. 1 (2008). "Economic Growth in Puerto Rico," and "The Policy Options," (with Barry Bosworth) in The Puerto Rican Economy: Restoring Growth, Washington D.C.: Center for the New Economy and The Brookings Institution (2006). "The Empirics of Growth: An Update," (with Barry Bosworth) in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, (2003:2). "Minority Groups in the Economics Profession," Journal of Economic Perspectives, (Vol. 14, No. 2, Spring 2000).