Voices of the Fed
Every day, vital conversations happen all around the Eighth Federal Reserve District. Businesspeople, educators, farmers, job-seekers, homeowners, civic leaders and more have important things to say about the economy. The St. Louis Fed is listening.
Here, current and former St. Louis Fed directors and advisory council members share their perspectives on how the organization amplifies the voice of Main Street — serving as an active partner in communities big and small.
Videos: Carolyn Chism Hardy | Tara Barney | Elizabeth McCoy | Tim Lampkin | Dr. Diana Han | Ray Dillon | Brice Fletcher | Robert Martinez | Kathy Mazzarella | Jim McKelvey | Sadiqa Reynolds
Blog Posts: Steven Lipstein | Susan S. Elliott | Bob Jones
Carolyn Chism Hardy
President and CEO, Chism Hardy Investments LLC
Hardy joined the St. Louis Fed’s board of directors in 2020 after serving two terms as director for the Bank’s Memphis Branch board. Her decades of experience in manufacturing inform the perspectives she brings to the board table about economic conditions in the Memphis region. “We try to be the voice of the community in order for the Fed to be the voice of the broader community,” she says.
Narrator: Meet Carolyn Chism Hardy. Carolyn is the CEO of Hardy Beverages in Memphis, Tennessee.
Carolyn Chism Hardy: I have a great background in manufacturing. I've been in manufacturing for 30 years. Started out with Smucker's as an accountant, became a plant manager, then I went to Coors and ran their billion-dollar division. I traveled the world, did benchmarking at breweries in Africa and Australia, looking at manufacturing best practices.
Narrator: After serving on the Memphis Branch board of directors, Carolyn joined the St. Louis Fed's board of directors in 2020.
Carolyn Chism Hardy: So, I have a really good background for the Fed. So, when we're talking about manufacturing, when we talk about labor relations, what's happening with the number of people, what's been happening with the workforce--well, my background is very relevant to that discussion. I know that everything that happens affects the economy.
And our country, as you know, is very different from coast to coast. You look at what happens in Tennessee. It is not the same as what happens in California. The importance of supply chain will look very different in California than supply chain looks here. Labor issues in California will look very different than labor issues here.
All the directors bring information about their communities to the Fed meeting. We come there, and we try to be the voice of the community in order for the Fed to be the voice of the broader community.
Narrator: Produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Central to America's Economy.
Tara Barney
Former CEO, Evansville Regional Economic Partnership
Tara Barney is committed to finding better ways to connect business opportunities and talent across southwest Indiana. It’s a passion she brought to the St. Louis Fed’s Louisville Branch board of directors, where she says, “So much of our conversation becomes about how we can empower our regions.”
Narrator: Meet Tara Barney.
Tara Barney: I'm the CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. I really love this work because it is about a constant virtuous spiral of finding better ways to connect business opportunity, talent that is finding their path and create systemic improvement in the way local regions work.
Narrator: In 2020, Tara joined the St. Louis Fed's Louisville Branch board of directors.
Tara Barney: I was asked to join this board a few years ago. And I walked into my first meeting and was humbled by the folks I was asked to work with. It is an extraordinary group of people, not just committed to the businesses they lead, but really committed to the regions they lead. And so that is certainly why so much of our conversation becomes about how we can empower our regions to pay focus to those opportunities to do better.
When our board gets together, we certainly spend time talking about Main Street issues. So, talking about how we're doing with disadvantaged communities, how we're paying attention to poverty, how we're looking at educational challenges. And I think that digging through the details of how lifting up the least productive parts of our economy really does set the economy up to thrive.
Our public sector folks have a huge part to play in how we build a robust region, so does the private sector. And it's been very powerful to be able to see how the work of the Fed takes our anecdotal input that we provide and matches it with data. And so I've really enjoyed the intentionality of that work.
Narrator: Produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Central to America's Economy.
Elizabeth McCoy
CEO, Planters Bank Inc.
McCoy is a former member of the St. Louis Fed’s board of directors and former chair of the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council. She sees an opportunity in the Fed reaching out to local businesspeople and bankers to ask for their perspectives on the economy, industry and employment. “I think it’s important that we are in a position to influence how the Federal Reserve feels about local economies and especially about rural America,” she says.
Tim Lampkin
CEO, Higher Purpose Co.
Higher Purpose Co. is an economic justice nonprofit that works with Black residents across Mississippi to build community wealth. “Poverty levels here in Clarksdale and across the Delta are still very high,” Lampkin notes. He says that being a member of the St. Louis Fed’s Community Development Advisory Council offered “a huge perspective” on the happenings in his region and solutions for tackling some of its biggest challenges.
Dr. Diana Han
Chief Health and Wellbeing Officer, Unilever
Dr. Han is a member of the St. Louis Fed’s Health Care Industry Council. She considers it vital for members to “share with the Federal Reserve what we see, hear and feel on the front lines in our districts.” To Dr. Han, these perspectives range from key health drivers in her region to access to high-quality care at a value price.
Ray Dillon
Former CEO, Deltic Timber
Dillon is the former chairman of the Fed's Little Rock Branch board of directors and former CEO of Arkansas-based Deltic Timber Corp. He previously served on the St. Louis Fed’s agribusiness council, one of four industry-based advisory councils. Dillon respects how much attention is paid to gathering accurate data — “real data from the grassroots level of this country” — to help form monetary policy.
Brice Fletcher
Chairman, First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas
Rural communities matter to Fletcher. Now a former director of our Memphis Branch board, he enjoyed bringing the perspective of small-town America and agricultural areas. “I think they need a voice,” he says. “It’s rewarding to be able to take their stories to the Fed.”
Robert Martinez
Owner and Operator, Rancho La Esperanza
Robert Martinez owns and operates a livestock production business in Sevier County, Arkansas. He is a former director of the Fed’s Little Rock Branch board. When asked about board meetings, he says a diverse group of leaders acts as “the eyes and ears” so that monetary policymakers have “information from every corner of the United States.”
Kathy Mazzarella
Chairman, President and CEO of Graybar
Mazzarella is a former chair of the St. Louis Fed’s board of directors. “Our responsibility on the board is to share the input from not only our industries, but from our communities,” she said.
Jim McKelvey
Founder and CEO, Invisibly; Co-founder of Square, Third Degree Glass Factory, Cultivation Capital and LaunchCode
McKelvey is a former chair of the St. Louis Fed’s board of directors. He recalls that “the biggest misconception that I had when I came into the Fed was that it was more focused on Washington and Wall Street.” In fact, he says, the Fed does work that impacts everyday people.
Sadiqa Reynolds
CEO, Perception Institute; President of the Board, Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center
As a former member of the Louisville Branch board of directors, Reynolds valued the opportunity to help economic experts see how the Fed’s work can move the needle for the disenfranchised and disadvantaged. See our Community Development focus.
Our On the Economy blog features perspectives from former St. Louis Fed directors.
Steven Lipstein
Steven Lipstein
Former CEO, BJC HealthCare
Lipstein held several positions on the St. Louis Fed's board of directors, including board chair from 2009 to 2011. Lipstein said serving on the board was “a unique privilege” and discussed the importance of the Fed maintaining independence from political considerations.
Susan S. Elliott
Susan S. Elliott
Founder and Chairman, Systems Service Enterprises
Elliott founded the information technology company Systems Service Enterprises, Inc. (SSE). She served as a St. Louis Fed director from 1996 to 2000 and was the board's first female board chair. Elliott recalled her time with the Fed as “one of the most rewarding opportunities” of her career.
Bob Jones
Bob Jones
Former Chairman and CEO, Old National Bancorp
Jones served as a director from 2008 to 2013. As chairman and CEO of Old National Bancorp — a community bank headquartered on Main Street in Evansville, Ind. — Jones shared how he was able to gather insights from Main Street America and bring these to the Federal Reserve Bank.
