News Release

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT APPOINTED TO SAN FRANCISCO FED

SAN FRANCISCO--Dr. Sheila D. Harris, a Phoenix area community development and affordable housing consultant, has been appointed as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco by the central bank's Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. for a three-year term beginning January 1.

Dr. Harris, 44, will be replacing retiring director Cynthia A. Parker, executive director of Anchorage Neighborhood Housing Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska. Ms. Parker served as a director on the Fed's district board for six years, and as deputy chairman in 1998. Both were selected as directors who are representative of non-banking interests on the board.

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Dr. Harris is a graduate of Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas. She earned a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Kansas, and a doctorate in public administration from Arizona State University in Tempe. Dr. Harris has served as program director for Homeward Bound and the Corporation for Supportive Housing- Arizona, as well as president and executive director of the Casa de Nueva Esperanza/Phoenix Revitalization Corporation. Her consultancy provides technical assistance to nonprofit and government agencies in the areas of affordable housing, community and economic development, and supportive housing, through developing architectural and site design criteria, identifying program services, and developing financing and community relations strategies.

Active in community affairs, Dr. Harris chairs the City of Phoenix Housing and Neighborhoods Commission, and the Capitol Mall Human Services Subcommittee of the Phoenix Community Alliance; and is a member of the Herberger Center External Advisory Board of Arizona State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design. In addition, she has served as chairman of the Community Neighborhood, Education and Service Action Committee of the Phoenix Future's Forum, and vice-chairman of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Environmental Justice Committee, among other leadership positions.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions in the nine western states through its head office in San Francisco and branch offices at Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank regulator, administers consumer protection laws, and is fiscal agent for the U.S. government. Head office directors are responsible for overseeing Reserve Bank operations, selecting the Reserve Bank president, providing details of economic trends in their regions, and advising the Bank's president and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on the general direction of monetary policy by establishing the Bank's discount rates.