Lael Brainard

Lael Brainard is distinguished fellow at the Georgetown University Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy and senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. She previously served as the 14th director of the National Economic Council, vice chair of the Federal Reserve, undersecretary of the Treasury and G7 Sherpa. Brainard has been involved in the successful resolution of several financial crises, including the Asian financial crisis, the euro area crisis, the pandemic financial crisis and the U.S. regional banking crisis. She has also been engaged in high-level economic diplomacy with China on financial matters at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, and on trade and industrial policy at the White House. Brainard was assistant and associate professor of applied economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and she founded the Brookings Global Economy and Development program. Brainard received a B.A. with university honors from Wesleyan University and a doctorate in economics from Harvard University, where she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship. She is the recipient of a White House Fellowship, the Alexander Hamilton Award and the Harvard Centennial Medal.