Monroe Gamble was the @sffed first-ever Black research assistant. In 2018.

That wasn't a one-off. Black economists and RA's are a rarity across the Fed system, I learned from data the Fed provided for this story. (1/) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/business/economy/federal-reserve-diversity.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

The word "pipeline issue" often gets bandied about here. The data suggest something else is up.

There are not a lot of Black people in economics. There are consistently even fewer at the Fed, at bachelor's and Ph.D. levels.

I talked to a lot of people about what's going on here, and I think Monroe's story sums it up best: It's both about recruitment and intention.

He struggled to get hired. Then when he arrived, he felt like an outsider.

But his story also has a happy ending.

SF Fed president @marydalyecon had lunch with Monroe. She saw his potential and urged him to stay. And he did.

He helped SF Fed to change up application vetting practices. Now he's at NYU, working with @PeterBlairHenry, still on the road to a Ph.D.

The Fed said it is working on issues of diversity and inclusion. It's making changes, including HBCU outreach. That builds on work (often Black) leaders across the economics community are doing to improve representation in the field as a whole.

Monroe, for his part, is hopeful.

Charts by the awesome @KarlNYT. Also, for more related to this topic, our story from 2019 addressed gender:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/business/economy/federal-reserve-diversity-hiring.html

And @davidmwessel and crew have done really useful research on the government broadly here @BrookingsEcon: https://www.brookings.edu/research/gender-and-racial-diversity/