Susan Bies, member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System, will speak at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 7, at the University of Tennessee at Martin Boling University Center in Watkins Auditorium. She will lecture about global economic change and the role of the Federal Reserve.

Her appearance is co-sponsored by the Honors Programs, the Horace and Sara Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking and the International Business Lectures Series (IBLS). The event is free and open to the public.

“It is an honor to have Governor Bies at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Dr. Bies, along with Chairman Greenspan and their colleagues on the Federal Reserve Board, play a vital role in the U.S. and global economies. Their monetary policy decisions directly affect the level of interest rates and their regulatory activities work to insure that the U.S. financial system operates smoothly,” said Dr. Tom Payne, Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking.

Bies took office in 2001 as a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. Prior to becoming a member of the board, she was executive vice president for risk management and auditor at First Tennessee National Corporation in Memphis. She was an assistant professor of economics at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., and chief regional and banking structure economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

“She accepted our invitation to speak after learning that she would also have the opportunity to meet directly with groups of UT Martin students. Her position on the Federal Reserve Board makes her one of the most powerful in the world, but she has retained her love of teaching and her heart for mentoring young people,” Payne said. Bies has been an active leader in various organizations, including the Emerging Issues Task Force of Financial Accounting Standards Board, the committee on corporate reporting of the Financial Executives Institute, the End Users of Derivatives Association, the American Bankers Association and the Bank Administration Institute.

She received a bachelor’s degree in education from the State College of New York at Buffalo and a master’s and doctorate in economics from Northwestern University.

“As a governor of the Federal Reserve System, Susan Bies meets regularly with Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to make decisions that have a powerful effect on the United States and world economy. Her visit is an exceptional opportunity for us to learn how the Fed works and how its decisions impact our lives,” said Dr. William Zachry, director of honors programs at UT Martin.