Mary C. Daly

Mary C. Daly is President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where she contributes to shaping U.S. monetary policy as part of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). In addition to her responsibilities as a monetary policymaker, Daly oversees Bank operations, including supervision and regulation of financial institutions, Treasury services, payment and settlement systems, and economic research.

Daly is a labor and public policy economist by training. Her research has advanced understanding of the Federal Reserve’s maximum employment and inflation mandates, most notably through her studies of wage rigidity and the natural rate of unemployment. Her work has also highlighted the overall economic benefits of reducing wage and employment gaps between demographic groups.

Daly is a frequent speaker across the U.S. and internationally, and also hosts an award-winning podcast, Zip Code Economies.

She also travels regularly through the Twelfth District to learn how people are experiencing the economy. The Fed’s largest district by population and area, the Twelfth District covers nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai’i, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—plus American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Daly holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a master’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in economics from Syracuse University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Northwestern University. She has also served as a visiting professor at Cornell University and UC Davis, and been an advisor to the Congressional Budget Office, the Library of Congress, and the Social Security Administration.

Updated December 2024