Lael Brainard

Lael Brainard is an American economist and the 14th director of the National Economic Council. Born on January 1, 1962, in Hamburg, Brainard spent her childhood in West Germany and Poland. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 1983 and later received a PhD from Harvard University in 1989. Brainard served as the 22nd vice chair of the Federal Reserve and as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2014 to 2023. Prior to her roles at the Federal Reserve, she was the under secretary of the treasury for international affairs from 2010 to 2013. Brainard has also been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.