Boston Fed Names New Director of Its New England Public Policy Center Boston Fed Names New Director of Its New England Public Policy Center

June 11, 2010
Contact: Thomas L. Lavelle, Vice President and Public Information Officer, 617-973-3647 or
Joel Werkema, Assistant Vice President, 617-973-3510


BOSTON- Yolanda K. Kodrzycki is the new director of the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She succeeds Robert Tannenwald, the Center's founding director. The appointment was announced by Eric S. Rosengren, the Bank's president and chief executive officer.

The New England Public Policy Center was established by the Boston Fed in 2005 as a means of strengthening and formalizing the Bank's decades-long support for better public policy in New England. The Center conducts and disseminates research on regional economic and policy issues and collaborates with regional partners to spotlight and clarify policy concerns.

Kodrzycki joined the Boston Fed as an economist in 1986. Prior to her new appointment, she was a senior economist and policy advisor in the Bank's research department. She has specialized in regional, labor market, and public sector economics. Her most recent work has been as a senior contributor to "Toward a More Prosperous Springfield," the Bank's multi-year commitment to support economic revitalization initiatives for Springfield, Massachusetts.

Kodrzycki is a former president and forecasting chair of the New England Economic Partnership (NEEP). She is also co-editor of Massachusetts Benchmarks, a joint project of the Boston Fed and the University of Massachusetts, and co-organizer of the New England Study Group seminar series at the Boston Fed. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. from Radcliffe College, Harvard University.

Since 2006, the New England Public Policy Center has conducted research and provided information and findings on a wide range of issues, including health reform efforts in the New England states, regional patterns of immigration and migration, the supply of the region's skilled labor force, and a variety of state and local tax concerns, including local option taxes, film tax credits, school finance, and business tax incentives. Center staff members meet frequently with and advise executive and legislative working groups and provide testimony at legislative hearings.

The Center's 2010 research addresses labor and demographic challenges and state and local fiscal policy issues. Specific work includes an analysis of state pension reform given the region's aging demographics, a consideration of New Hampshire's provision of public services without a broad-based income or sales tax, and an examination of the extent to which there is a shortage of skilled labor in New England -- and, if so, which industries and occupations are affected.