Joseph Firschein
Assistant Director and Community Affairs Officer, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Joseph Firschein leads the Federal Reserve Board's Community Affairs team that is responsible for working with Reserve Banks and practitioners to promote community development policy research and best practices as well as assessing the performance of Reserve Banks with respect to the Community Affairs function.  Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board, Mr. Firschein served as a Director in Fannie Mae’s Housing and Community Development Division where he managed the business segment responsible for financing community development financial institutions and led the company’s efforts to sell foreclosed single family homes to public entities and nonprofits.  Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Mr. Firschein managed lending at the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and served as lead community development analyst at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Housing Branch.  Joseph is actively involved with a number of Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit and educational organizations.  He was a founding board member of the Educated Consumer Project, a nonprofit organization that provides financial literacy education to low-income high school students.  He is a board member and Treasurer of Yachad, a nonprofit organization that revitalizes housing in low-income neighborhoods.  He also serves as adjunct professor at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria, Virginia masters program in urban planning where he teaches a course in community development finance. Joseph has an MBA in Finance from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business; a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy; and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University.