Christopher J. Waller
- Governor, Board of Governors, 2020–
Christopher J. Waller took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on December 18, 2020, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2030. In accordance with social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chair Jerome H. Powell administered the oath remotely via videoconference.
Waller was born in Nebraska City, Nebraska, spent his early childhood in South Dakota, and grew up in Minnesota. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Minnesota’s Bemidji State University in 1981 and his master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Washington State University in 1984 and 1985, respectively. His principal research interests are monetary theory, political economy, and macroeconomic theory.
Before his appointment to the Board, Waller was an executive vice president and the director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis from June 2009 through December 2020. In that role, Waller grew the research division’s reputation as a world-class research organization and helped make the St. Louis Fed’s Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and Economic Education Program internationally recognized resources. He also fostered a close partnership with the department of economics at Washington University in St. Louis.
Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed, Waller served as a professor and the Gilbert F. Schaefer Chair of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. He was one of the founding members of the new economics department and was instrumental in developing it into a top U.S. economics department.
From 1998 to 2003, Waller was a professor and the Carol Martin Gatton Chair of Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics at the University of Kentucky. During that time, he was also a research fellow at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) at the University of Bonn. From 1985 to 1998, he was a professor of economics at Indiana University’s department of economics.
Waller was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Washington University from 1994 to 1995. His research has been extensively published in peer-reviewed journals.
Written by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and published December 21, 2020. See disclaimer and update policy.
