Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen
Official portrait, 2021
78th United States Secretary of the Treasury
Incumbent
Assumed office January 26, 2021
President	Joe Biden
Deputy	Wally Adeyemo
Preceded by	Steven Mnuchin
15th Chair of the Federal Reserve
In office February 3, 2014 – February 3, 2018
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Deputy	Stanley Fischer
Preceded by	Ben Bernanke
Succeeded by	Jerome Powell
19th Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve
In office October 4, 2010 – February 3, 2014
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Donald Kohn
Succeeded by	Stanley Fischer
Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
In office October 4, 2010 – February 3, 2018
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Preceded by	Mark W. Olson
Succeeded by	Lisa D. Cook
In office August 12, 1994 – February 17, 1997
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Wayne Angell
Succeeded by	Edward Gramlich
11th President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
In office June 14, 2004 – October 4, 2010
Preceded by	Robert T. Parry
Succeeded by	John C. Williams
18th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
In office February 18, 1997 – August 3, 1999
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Joseph Stiglitz
Succeeded by	Martin Neil Baily
Personal details
Born	Janet Louise Yellen (1946-08-13) August 13, 1946 (age 77) Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Political party	Democratic[1]
Spouse	George Akerlof ​ (m. 1978)​
Children	1
Education	Brown University (BA) Yale University (MA, PhD)
Signature
Academic career
Institution	Harvard University London School of Economics University of California, Berkeley National Bureau of Economic Research Brookings Institution
Field	Macroeconomics Labor economics
School or tradition	New Keynesian economics
Doctoral advisor	James Tobin
Academic advisors	Joseph Stiglitz
Doctoral students	Charles Engel
Influences	John Maynard Keynes
Information at IDEAS / RePEc
Janet Yellen's voice Janet Yellen speaks on the importance of raising the debt ceiling Recorded March 23, 2023

Janet Louise Yellen (born August 13, 1946) is an American economist serving as the 78th United States secretary of the treasury since January 26, 2021. She previously served as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. She is the first woman to hold either post, and has also led the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Yellen graduated from Brown University in 1967 and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1971. She taught as an assistant professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1976, was a staff economist for the Federal Reserve Board from 1977 to 1978, and was a faculty member at the London School of Economics from 1978 to 1980. Yellen is professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business and the University of California, Berkeley, where she has been a faculty member since 1980 and became the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Economics.

Yellen served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1994 to 1997 and was nominated to the position by President Bill Clinton, who then named her chair of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999. She subsequently returned to academia, before serving as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 until 2010. Afterward, President Barack Obama chose her to replace Donald Kohn as vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2010 to 2014 before nominating her to succeed Ben Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve three years later. She was succeeded by Jerome Powell after President Donald Trump declined to renominate her for a second term. Following her departure from the Federal Reserve, Yellen joined the Brookings Institution as a distinguished fellow in residence from 2018 until 2020, when she again went into public service.^[2]

On November 30, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden nominated Yellen to serve as secretary of the treasury; she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 25, 2021, and took office the next day.^[3]