Kathryn Dominguez nominated to serve on Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors

July 20, 2015

President Obama said Monday he’ll nominate University of Michigan professor Kathryn Dominguez to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Dominguez is professor of public policy and economics at U-M and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She begins service as associate dean for academic affairs at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy this fall.

“Professor Dominguez is a renowned scholar and teacher with a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s leading experts on global financial markets. I am pleased and proud that she’s been invited to join the nation’s top monetary policymaking body,” said U-M President Mark Schlissel. “Kathryn joins a long tradition of University of Michigan faculty lending their expertise at the highest levels of service in Washington, D.C., shaping public policy and strengthening communities.”

"I'm delighted with the President's selection of Kathryn. She's a first-rate economist, and if the Senate confirms this nomination, our country will benefit from her service," says Susan M. Collins, dean of the Ford School and a member of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. "It's a particularly critical time for our nation's monetary policy, with rates expected to rise in the near future. It's certainly in the nation's interest to fill the two vacant seats on such a key policy-making body."

Dominguez’s current research examines the reasons for the U.S. economy’s slow recovery from the Great Recession, including the role of global economic developments. She has written numerous articles on foreign exchange rate behavior and is author of Exchange Rate Efficiency and the Behavior of International Asset Markets and Does Foreign Exchange Intervention Work? (with Jeff Frankel).

Dominguez joined the U-M faculty in 1997. Prior to that, she taught at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She has also taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the London School of Economics, and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley. She worked as a research consultant for the Federal Reserve System, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements.

She has been a visiting scholar at a number of central banks including the Federal Reserve Board, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Bank of Italy, the Norwegian Central Bank, the Bank of Spain, and Bank of the Republic Colombia.

At the Ford School, Kathryn teaches macroeconomics and international finance. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University.

If confirmed, Dominguez will become the second member of the Ford School and Department of Economics faculty to serve on the Board of Governors. Edward M. Gramlich was a member of the Board of Governors from 1997 to 2005 and chaired the Committee on Consumer and Community Affairs.

The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. It was founded by Congress in 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system.

The seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Members of the media and public are welcome to use our high-resolution, Creative Commons-licensed photos of Kathryn M. Dominguez in their reporting of her nomination.