Romer will deliver the university’s Centennial Chung Watson Lecture, titled “Monetary Policy in the Post-Crisis World: Lessons Learned and Possible Strategies for the Future,” as part of the Oct. 7 HSU School of Business Summit.
“Professor Romer’s presentation will be very timely given the recent surprise announcement of the Fed to continue the quantitative easing program to improve the economy,” says HSU School of Business chair Hari Singh. “The Fed is in uncharted territory and Dr. Romer’s insights about these issues will be invaluable.”
Currently the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, Romer is also co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Romer was chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors in 2009-2010. She teamed up with fellow economist Jared Bernstein in the weeks before Obama’s inauguration to craft a recovery blueprint, including a job creation program that the president submitted to Congress.
Romer specializes in macroeconomics and economic history, including research in the causes of and recovery from the Great Depression of the 1930s and early 1940s, which engulfed the industrial world. Her work focused on macroeconomic volatility in the years pre- and post-World War II.
An Illinois native, Romer earned her Ph.D. in 1985 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an assistant professor at Princeton before moving to Berkeley in 1988.
Humboldt State’s annual Chung-Watson Lecture in Business Ethics takes its name and support from alumnus Po Chung (’69), cofounder of the Asia Pacific Division of DHL Express and a Hong Kong business magnate. A recipient of HSU’s 2004-2005 Distinguished Alumni Award, Chung is an expert in global trade and an international patron of the arts.
Romer’s lecture anchors HSU’s day-long Oct. 7 Business Summit, hosted by the School of Business and starting at 9 a.m. in the Great Hall of the College Creek Apartments with a student panel, “Beyond the Classroom: New Models for Active Learning.”
A senior executives’ panel at 10:30 a.m. in the same location will discuss “Strategies for Regional Business,” followed by a noon luncheon and Romer’s presentation at 3:30 p.m. The summit will conclude with a reception and refreshments at 5:30 p.m. in the Kate Buchanan Room at University Center. RSVP is requested by Sept. 30 at business@humboldt.edu.