Buffalo State alumna Susan Schmidt Bies, a past member of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System, will headline the annual Economics and Finance Forum, Thursday, April 14, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center South 2.

Hosted by the Economics and Finance Department, the forum will focus on an “Economics and Finance Forecast for 2011-2012.” Speakers will discuss current and future economic conditions from local, national, and international perspectives as well as the current and future condition of financial markets.

Bies served on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board from 2001 to 2007. The board leads the “Fed” (the central bank of the United States) and is charged with overseeing the nation’s 12 regional reserve banks and setting national monetary policy. She was appointed to the board by President George W. Bush.

Before joining the Federal Reserve Board, Bies spent 22 years in business, holding several high-ranking positions at First Tennessee National Corporation. Earlier in her career, she taught economics at Rhodes College and Wayne State University and served as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

A native Buffalonian, Bies earned her bachelor of science degree in education from Buffalo State and her master of arts and doctoral degrees, both in economics, from Northwestern University. She received a State University of New York Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters and a Distinguished Alumnus Award at Buffalo State’s 2003 commencement.

Ted Byrley, chair of the Economics and Finance Department, will moderate the forum and faculty members William T. Ganley, Ted Schmidt, Kevin Qian, and Bruce Fisher will speak after Bies’s presentation.

This event is free and open to the public.