Acting Chairman
Tyler Goodspeed
Tyler Beck Goodspeed is the Acting Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, having previously served as Member, Chief Economist for Macroeconomic Policy, and Senior Economist for Macroeconomics. Before joining the CEA, he was a member of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oxford and was a lecturer in economics at King’s College London. He has published extensively on financial regulation, banking, and monetary economics, with particular attention to the role of contingent liability and access to credit in mitigating the effects of adverse aggregate shocks in historical contexts. His research has appeared in three full-length monographs from academic publishers, as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed and edited journals. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University; and he received his M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. He is a current member of the American Economic Association, and was previously a member of the Economic History Association, Economic History Society, and Royal Economic Society, as well as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.
Chief of Staff and Chief Economists
Rachael Slobodien serves as Chief of Staff for the Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to joining CEA, Rachael served as Communications Director for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). She also worked at The Heritage Foundation where she led communications strategy for Heritage’s Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity. She holds a B.A. from Washington and Lee University where she graduated cum laude with honors. Rachael also earned a J. D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she graduated with honors and served as Editor-in-Chief of The Federal Communications Law Journal.
Kevin Corinth serves as Chief Economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. He formerly served as the CEA’s Chief Economist for Domestic Policy and as a Senior Economist. Prior to joining CEA, Kevin was a Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Kevin’s research has focused on poverty, housing, and homelessness. He has been published in academic journals and has also written for the popular press in various outlets. Kevin received a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Boston College.
Steven Braun has been CEA’s Director of Macroeconomic Forecasting since 1996. Prior to his current position, Dr. Braun was a senior economist at the Council, a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and an economist at the OECD. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Harvard University.
Aaron Hedlund serves as Chief Economist for Domestic Policy at the Council of Economic Advisers. He is on leave from the University of Missouri, where he is an associate professor in the economics department with specialties in macroeconomics, household finance, real estate, and labor. Prior to joining CEA, he was also a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. Aaron received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.S. from Duke University.
Senior Economists
Joseph Balagtas is a Senior Economist at CEA focusing on agriculture and trade. He is on leave from Purdue University, where he is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of California, Davis, an M.S. in agricultural economics from Iowa State University, and a B.A. in economics from Miami University.
Andre Barbe is a Senior Economist at CEA where he focuses on trade. Andre received his BA in math and economics from Tulane and PhD from Rice.
Robert Fisher is a Senior Economist and General Counsel at Council of Economic Advisers, where he is on detail from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). His most recent position at the SEC is Managing Executive of the National Examination Program (NEP). He began his career at the SEC as an Economic Fellow, later Financial Economist, in the SEC’s Office of Economic Analysis. Prior to that, among other professional experiences, Dr. Fisher’s career as an attorney included stints at three law firms: Skadden Arps et al., Sidley & Austin, and Fried Frank et al. His education includes a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
LaVaughn Henry is a Senior Economist at CEA on detail from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation where he serves as a Policy Analyst in the Banking and Regulatory Policy Section. In this role he assists in the interpretation, analysis, proposal and drafting of policy guidelines, existing and proposed statutes and regulations, and studies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, FDIC rules and regulations, the National Bank Act, and other relevant depository institution law. Dr. Henry earned both his doctorate and master’s degrees in economics from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s degree from Rockhurst University, located in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri.
Ian Lange is a Senior Economist and specializes in energy and natural resource issues. He is on leave from the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), where he serves as Director of the Mineral and Energy Economics Program in the Division of Economics and Business. Before joining the Colorado School of Mines, he worked as a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) and Director of the Masters of Energy Management in the Division of Economics at the University of Stirling, United Kingdom, and as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is currently a Faculty Fellow at the Payne Institute and Fellow of the CESifo Research Network. Ian holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington as well as an M.A. and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Aparna Mathur is a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to joining CEA, she was a resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005, and is currently serving on the University of Maryland Economics Leadership Council. At AEI, she directed the AEI-Brookings Project on Paid Family and Medical Leave, for which she was recognized in the Politico 50 list for 2017. Her research has focused on income inequality and mobility, tax policy, labor markets and small businesses. She has published in several top scholarly journals, testified several times before Congress and published numerous articles in the popular press on issues of policy relevance. She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
Deborah Minehart is a Senior Economist on detail from the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice where she works in the Economic Analysis Group. She specializes in industrial organization and antitrust. Prior to working for the Department of Justice, she was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and an Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and her undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Brandon Restrepo is a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. He is on detail from the Economic Research Service (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture), where he is a Research Economist. He has also worked as a Regulatory Economist at the Food and Drug Administration and as a Max Weber Fellow in the Dept. of Economics at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in Economics from St. John’s University.
