Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to Receive Honorary Degree, Deliver Keynote at UB Commencement, Dec. 19
December 15, 2016
Contact: Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore will host a commencement ceremony for its graduate and undergraduate classes from the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences on Monday, Dec. 19 at 1 p.m. in the Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric, adjacent to the UB campus.
Janet L. Yellen, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will deliver a keynote address during the event. She will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University during the ceremony.
"We are pleased to have Dr. Yellen join us for this singular day in the lives of our new graduates," said UB President Kurt L. Schmoke. "She is a remarkable person and has had an exemplary, even history-making career as the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve. We hope to recognize her for her many achievements, and perhaps gain a bit of her wisdom along the way."
At the ceremony, Schmoke will offer greetings to the graduating students and their guests, and also lead in the conferring of all degrees. He will be joined by Gary Attman, representative of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, Stuart Goldberg, B.A. ’70, J.D. ’74, president of the University of Baltimore Alumni Association and chair of the University of Baltimore Foundation’s Alumni Committee, and several members of the University of Baltimore Foundation Board of Directors, including board chair James P. Nolan, J.D. '74, Nina K. Yudell, B.S. '81, M.B.A. '82, Tracey A. DuBree, B.S. '02, Shirley Marcus Allen, M.P.A. '78, Sayra Meyerhoff, J.D. '78, M.S. '04, and Stuart J. Silberg, B.S. '71, in welcoming the audience to the events. Student Sarah Boies will offer remarks as the representative of the undergraduate class, while Ryma Nasr will do the same as the representative of the graduate class. Keith Laury, president of the UB Student Government Association, Darlene Smith, provost and executive vice president, and Catherine Anderson, vice provost, also will be on the stage.
Yellen took office as head of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in February 2014. Simultaneously, she serves as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System’s principal monetary policymaking body. Previously, she had served as vice chair of the Board of Governors, beginning in 2010.
Yellen is professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, having served on the faculty since 1980 and holding the title of the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics. Her academic career began at Harvard University in 1971, when she served as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics. She continued in that role until 1976. She also was an economist for the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors in 1977 and 1978, and a member of the faculty of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1978 to 1980.
Yellen's tenure as a member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve System began in 1994 and continued until 1997, when she left to become chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. She held that position until while also heading up the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from 1997 to 1999. She also served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010.
A former president of the Western Economic Association, vice president of the American Economic Association and a fellow of the Yale Corporation, Yellen serves on both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Yellen graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1971. She received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale in 1997, an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brown in 1998, and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Bard College in 2000.
Yellen has written on a wide variety of macroeconomic issues, while specializing in the causes, mechanisms, and implications of unemployment.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, the UB School of Law and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.