Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC)

The Secretary of Commerce has determined that the purposes for which the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC) was established have been fulfilled, and the committee has been terminated effective February 28, 2025.

The Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC) advises the Directors of the Department of Commerce's statistical agencies, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Commissioner of the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), on statistical methodology and other technical matters related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of federal economic statistics.

Upcoming Meetings:

June 13, 2025 *Meeting Canceled*

Current Members

David Wilcox

(FESAC Chairman)

Peterson Institute for International Economics and Bloomberg Economics

David Wilcox is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and director of U.S. economic research at Bloomberg Economics. His current research focuses on the U.S. macroeconomy and monetary policy. Previously, he served roughly 30 years as a member of the staff of the Federal Reserve Board, including as deputy director (2001-11) and director (2011-18) in the Division of Research and Statistics. In the latter role, he functioned as the chief economist of the division, a senior advisor to three successive chairs of the Federal Reserve Board, the division's lead for strategic direction, and its chief manager. He also served as assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department from 1997 to 2001, and as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers from 1994 to 1995.

Wilcox is the author of many publications that have appeared in both scholarly and non-technical outlets. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the MIT and a B.A. in mathematics from Williams College.

Rajshree Agarwal

University of Maryland

Rajshree Agarwal is the Rudolph P. Lamone Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business and director of the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets.

In her research, Agarwal studies the kinds of institutions that support innovation and enterprise, as well as the implications of entrepreneurship and innovation on firm and industry evolution. Her work looks at knowledge diffusion among firms, industries, and regions.

Agarwal is a fellow at the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society, as well as editor of the Strategic Management Journal. Prior to coming to Maryland, Agarwal was a professor in the College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has also taught at the University of Florida. She has received numerous awards for her research and teaching.

Agarwal has a Ph.D. in industrial organization economics from the University at Buffalo and a M.A. in economics from Bombay University.

Christine Baker-Smith

National League of Cities

Christine Baker-Smith is the director of research at the National League of Cities. A sociologist, her research is focused on basic needs insecurity within higher education. She also examined cities’ use of federal Covid recovery funds from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.

Baker-Smith done research into the success of nudges like text messages to encourage higher education students to sign up for benefits, as well as the impact of transitions across institutions on student behavior and school choice. In addition, she analyzed the results of the #RealCollege Survey, which examines students’ basic needs.

Prior to coming to the National League of Cities, Baker-Smith served in several roles at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, including as senior director of research and evaluation and executive director. She was also data and evaluation manager at the Fiver Children’s Foundation. She has served as faculty in the Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences master’s degree program at Columbia University.

Baker-Smith earned a B.A. in sociology from Whitman College, a M.A. in the sociology of education from Stanford University, a Ed.M. in leadership, policy and politics from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in education and sociology from New York University.

Avinash Collis

Carnegie Mellon University

Avinash (Avi) Collis is an assistant professor at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

His research interests include the economics of digitization, focusing on measuring the welfare gains from digital goods. He has published several papers in premier academic journals, and his research has been covered in major media outlets and policy reports.

Prior to Carnegie Mellon, Collis was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He now teaches courses related to Technology Strategy and Experimentation.

Collis received his B.Tech. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, M.S. in Management from ESSEC Business School and University of Mannheim, and Ph.D. in Management Science from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Jason Faberman

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Jason Faberman is a senior economist and economic adviser in the Research, Policy, and Public Engagement Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. His research focuses on the labor market, with a particular focus on the interaction between employers and workers. Faberman has studied these interactions at the micro level, across the broader macroeconomy, and across urban areas.

His research has been published in various journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics; Econometrica; the American Economic Review; the American Economics Journal: Macroeconomics; the Journal of Monetary Economics; the Journal of Economic Perspectives; and the Journal of Urban Economics.

Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Faberman served as a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and as a research economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At BLS, he worked extensively on developing and enhancing the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and the Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data. Faberman currently collaborates with a team of economists to produce the annual Job Search Supplement to the Survey of Consumer Expectations, which is administered through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He has taught at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Faberman received a B.S. in environmental science and a B.A. in economics from Lehigh University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland.

Gopi Shah Goda

Brookings Institution

Dr. Gopi Shah Goda is the Director of the Retirement Security Project, the Alice M. Rivlin Chair in Economic Policy, and Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Dr. Goda served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers from July 2021 to July 2022, and was on California Governor Gavin Newsom's Council of Economic Advisors from January to August 2024.

Dr. Goda conducts research that informs how policy can best serve aging societies, including how individuals make healthcare, saving and retirement decisions as they age and the sustainability of public programs serving older populations. Her work has appeared in a variety of leading economics journals, has garnered coverage in major media outlets, and has frequently been cited in policy discourse, including government reports, agency rulemaking, and by legislative bodies. She is a founding member of Briefing Book, a collaboration among economists with research and policy experience that aims to help its readers develop informed views about economic policy issues.

Prior to joining Brookings, Dr. Goda was a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), serving a term as Deputy Director, and Professor of Economics and Health Policy (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dr. Goda earned her BS in mathematics and actuarial science from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, obtained a PhD in economics from Stanford University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Harvard University.

Fiona Greig

Vanguard

Fiona Greig is global head of investor research and policy in Vanguard’s Investment Strategy Group, where she leads Vanguard’s global retirement and investor behavior research efforts. She specializes in household finance and the use of financial data to drive insights for both policymakers and business leaders.

Before joining Vanguard in 2022, Greig was co-president and founding research director of the JPMorgan Chase Institute for more than seven years. During her tenure, she authored more than 40 papers covering a range of household finance topics, including income and spending trends, student loan and housing debt, the gig economy, and the impacts of fiscal relief policies, all with an underlying focus on low- and moderate-income families as well as racial and gender disparities.

Earlier in her career, Greig was deputy budget director for the city of Philadelphia, a consultant at McKinsey & Company for public and social sector clients, and a consultant at the Washington DC Economic Partnership. She has also been an adjunct professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University. Greig earned a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a B.A. in international relations from Stanford University.

Erica Groshen

Cornell University and Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Erica Groshen is senior economics advisor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a research fellow at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. From 2013 to 2017, she served as commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and inflation. Before that she was vice president in the Research and Statistics Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Her research has centered on jobless recoveries, wage rigidity and dispersion, and the role of employers in the labor market.

Groshen is the lead author of “Preparing U.S. Workers and Employers for an Autonomous Vehicle Future,” with Susan Helper, John Paul MacDuffie, and Charles Carson. She also co-authored “How New is the ‘New Employment Contract’?” and co-edited “Structural Changes in U.S. Labor Markets: Causes and Consequences.” She received the 2017 Susan C. Eaton Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard and a B.S. in mathematics and economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Svenja Gudell

Indeed

Svenja Gudell is the chief economist at the worldwide job site Indeed. She oversees Indeed’s economic research team, the Hiring Lab, which is a global team of economists and data scientists, leading the global labor market conversation. The team is recognized by a wide audience of media, policymakers, and professionals for its impartial, data-driven insight into the labor market, the broader economy, and the relationship between the two.

Gudell currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Business Economics. Prior to joining Indeed, she was chief economist at Zillow Group. Previously, she worked on economic, financial, and strategic consulting for Analysis Group, and was an assistant economist in the research group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Gudell has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Rochester, a master’s in economics from New York University, a master’s in business administration from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Rochester.

Constance Hunter

Economist Intelligence Unit

Constance Hunter currently serves as the Chief Economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Prior to her current role, Ms. Hunter was Executive Vice President, Global Head of Strategy & ESG for AIG.

Ms. Hunter is an expert in macroeconomic and industry analysis, with a track record of using data driven sectoral analysis to be ahead of the curve on pivotal economic events, including the impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. and other global economies, the 2007 real estate and credit crisis, and the 2001 bust of the Dotcom bubble.

Prior to joining AIG, Hunter was the chief economist for KPMG, responsible for macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. She was also a member of KPMG's Growth and Strategy Leadership team and served on the advisory board of the firm's pension committee. She previously served as deputy chief investment officer at AXA Investment Managers, helping lead the management of more than $500 billion in fixed income assets.

Hunter is a past president and former board member of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), where she has also been recognized as a fellow and serves on the NABE Statistics Committee. She is on the board of the National Bureau for Economic Research. She also serves as board chair of GallopNYC, a nonprofit organization that offers disabled New Yorkers therapeutic horsemanship programs.

Hunter holds a B.A. in economics and sociology from New York University and a master's from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She also holds the Certified Business Economist designation from the National Association for Business Economics.

Kristen Olson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Kristen Olson is the Leland J. and Dorothy H. Olson Professor in Sociology and director of the Bureau of Sociological Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. Olson’s research includes nonresponse adjustments, mixed-mode surveys, interviewer effects, paradata, the intersection of nonresponse and measurement errors, within-household selection in self-administered surveys, and questionnaire design.

Olson’s work has appeared in numerous journals, including Public Opinion Quarterly and Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. She was the lead editor of a volume published by CRC Press in 2020 on Interviewer Effects from a Total Survey Error Perspective. She was principal investigator on an NSF-Census Research Node examining innovative methods of collecting data using computerized survey instruments, with a sophisticated mix of experimental methods and multilevel and longitudinal analytic models. She also is co-investigator on two National Institutes of Health grants examining use of ecological momentary assessment methods to capture multiple measurements each day with youth experiencing homelessness in Midwestern cities.

Olson teaches graduate-level classes on statistical analysis, survey sampling, analysis of complex survey data, missing data, and total survey error. She has served on the editorial board of publications including Sociological Methodology and The Sociological Quarterly. She is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Olson has an M.S. in survey methodology from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in survey methodology from the University of Michigan.

Peter Schott

Yale University

Peter K. Schott is the Juan Trippe Professor of International Economics at the Yale School of Management. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a research associate at the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau. He is also the executive director of the Yale branch of the New York Federal Statistical Research Data Center.

Schott’s research focuses on how countries, firms, and workers are affected by globalization. His most recent papers examine developing countries such as China improving their product quality, U.S. exporters abandoning Asian export markets following the 1997 financial crisis, and U.S. multinationals engaging in transfer-pricing.

Schott has an M.S. in political science and a Ph.D in business economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.S. in finance from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mel Stephens

University of Michigan

Mel Stephens is professor of economics at the University of Michigan, with a courtesy appointment at the Ford School. He serves as a research affiliate at the Population Studies Center and a faculty associate at the Survey Research Center, both within the Institute for Social Research. Stephens is also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, currently as a research associate. He has previously served as a member of the Academic Research Council at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Stephens is a labor economist whose research interests include consumption and savings, aging and retirement, education, the impact of local labor market fluctuations on household outcomes, and applied econometrics. He received his B.A. in economics and mathematics from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Don Unser

Circana

Don Unser is president of thought leadership for Circana, which advises companies on consumer behavior.

Unser’s is an expert in consumer and retail trends spaning a wide range of categories. He analyses industry and category performance, the state of retail, and the winning strategies of best-in-class companies. He is an advisor to many successful brands, including companies such as Target, Apple, Best Buy, and Newell.

Prior to joining Circana, Unser was a 20-year veteran at Hewlett-Packard and held a variety of positions with the company, including vice president of consumer market sales. He is a member of the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s Board of Directors.

Unser has an MBA from the University of Tampa and a B.S. in business and finance from the University of Central Florida.

Christopher Wheat

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Chris Wheat is a managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and co-president of the JPMorgan Chase Institute, where he leads and develops the research agenda on small business, local economic development, and inclusive banking. His recent work has focused on racial gaps in financial outcomes for households and small businesses, the impact of the Payroll Protection Program on small business activity, and the role of online retail in shaping outcomes in and across cities. His work has been cited by federal and local policymakers.

In addition to leading research, Wheat is invested in work on diversity, equity, and inclusion at both the institute and JPMorgan Chase, serving as a mentor, leader, and adviser to young Black professionals across the firm. He serves on the board of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, and regularly joins industry leaders and other experts in joint advisory work on small business economic policy.

Previously, Wheat served as the director of analytics at a financial technology startup, where he led the development of advanced analytics algorithms. He previously was an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and at the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at Rutgers Business School. As a faculty member, he taught and researched topics in strategy, entrepreneurship, global microfinance, economic sociology, and social network analysis. He earned a B.S.E. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University, an M.S. in computer science from Stanford University, an M.A. in sociology from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Harvard University.