VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Jeffrey Lacker, Ph.D., former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, will join the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business this fall.

Lacker, who led the Richmond Fed from 2004 to 2017, will become a distinguished professorin the Department of Economics on Aug.16.         

“It’s an honor to welcome Jeff Lacker to the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Business,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “As a scholar and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Jeff brings an immeasurable amount of expertise and life experience that will greatly benefit our students. I am grateful for his decision to teach and conduct research at VCU.”

As president of the Richmond Fed, Lacker participated in the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy arm, and had four rotations as a voting member.

“We’re delighted and very fortunate to have someone of Jeff Lacker’s caliber joining our talented colleagues in economics,” said Ed Grier, dean of the VCU School of Business. “I look forward to his work with both undergraduate and master’s students.”

This marks a return to academia for Lacker, who was an assistant professor of economics at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University from 1984 to 1989 before joining the Richmond Fed in 1989 as an economist. While at the Richmond Fed, he taught at the College of William & Mary from 1992 to 1993, and was a visiting scholar at the Swiss National Bank in 1997. Most recently, he served as visiting scholar at New York University’s Stern School of Business for the 2017-18 academic year.

There’s a lot of creative energy at the VCU School of Business right now.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be joining the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University,” Lacker said. “I’ve always loved teaching and I’m looking forward to helping the next generation of VCU students understand economics and the important ways it affects their lives. There’s a lot of creative energy at the VCU School of Business right now. I’ve known some of the senior people here for a long time and they’ve brought in some talented young economists in recent years as well, so it’s a lively academic environment and a great place for me to work on some research projects related to the recent financial crisis.”

Lacker has authored numerous articles on monetary, financial and payment economics that have been published in professional journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Monetary Economics and the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. He has presented papers and speeches at universities and central banks worldwide on topics such as financial stability and central banking policy.

A longtime director or member of several local associations, he currently serves on the University of Richmond board of trustees, the Council for Economic Education and the Side by Side advisory board.

A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Lacker earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Franklin & Marshall College in 1977 and a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984.