Dr. Adriana D. Kugler

Board of Governors
Federal Reserve System

Dr. Adriana D. Kugler took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on September 13, 2023 after being nominated by President Biden on May 12, 2023, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 7, 2023. In addition to her responsibilities as a member of the Board and of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Governor Kugler serves on several Board and FOMC committees: Board Committee on Board Affairs, Board Committee on Financial Stability, Board Committee on Federal Reserve Bank Affairs, Board Subcommittee on Smaller Regional and Community Banking, and System Committee on Employee Benefits. She also represents the Federal Reserve at the Central Bank Governors of CEMLA (Center for Latin American Monetary Studies).

Governor Kugler is currently on leave from her position as a Full Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Georgetown University. Prior to her current position, she served as the U.S. Executive Director of the World Bank for which she was also nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 7, 2022. Governor Kugler received the Chase Award for her leadership and contributions to the Multilateral Development Banks' Evolution awarded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She was also recently recognized as one of the top 500 most influential people in Latin America in 2023 by Bloomberg Linea.

Governor Kugler was Vice Provost for Faculty at Georgetown between 2013 and 2016. In that role, she led numerous initiatives to clarify the processes and criteria for promotion and tenure, support faculty development (she received an NSF grant to support women in STEM), revamp the new faculty orientation, and develop a new framework for non-tenure faculty. She was the founder and Co-director of the International Summer Institute on Policy Evaluation between 2010-2013.

Governor Kugler served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor during the Obama Administration between 2011 and 2013, where she supported work on unemployment insurance, workforce development programs, retirement benefits, disability insurance, and occupational safety. In that role, she produced a series of reports that analyzed data on the labor market from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to assess the labor market outlook of various groups. She also served on the Technical Advisory Committee for the BLS to assess different ways of measuring prices.

Governor Kugler’s research includes contributions on the role of public policies (including payroll taxes, employment protections, occupational licensing, and unemployment insurance), and on the determinants of unemployment and earnings. Her contribution on the impact of policies and regulations was recognized with the 2007 John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. In 2010, one of her papers garnered the First Prize for Best Contribution in the area of “Globalization, Regulations and Development” from the Global Development Network. Her work has been published in the top general interest and specialized journals in Economics and Public Policy, and her research has been covered in multiple reports and by numerous media outlets. Governor Kugler has received grants from a number of foundations including the NSF, the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Tinker Foundation. Governor Kugler has testified as an expert witness in front of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and has participated in numerous panels in Congress.

Governor Kugler served on the Science Technology and Economic Policy (STEP) Board of the National Academies of Science and Engineering. She was Chair-elect (2019) and Chair (2020) of the Business and Economics Section of the American Statistical Association, and the Committee of Visitors of the NSF's Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES). She was a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research, Institute for the Study of Labor, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, and the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.

Governor Kugler earned her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997 and her Joint BA in Economics and Political Science with First Class Honors from McGill University in Canada in 1991. She finished high school in the public schools in Maryland.