Your Fed, Your Voice Video Profile: Penny Pennington
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The Federal Reserve System is a unique central bank system. It was set up in order to listen to the members of the community all over the United States.
My name is Penny Pennington. I'm the managing partner of Edward Jones and a former director of the Eighth District Federal Reserve Board.
Monetary policy and data are not a dry thing. They get lived out in the decisions that people make every day.
The way that you spend money. The decisions that you're making about borrowing for a car or borrowing to buy your next home. When you're thinking about your kids and your grandkids, which is what I do a lot. When you're thinking about how to invest in the markets and how to think about the banking system. Those are everyday decisions, everyday engagements that we have as consumers. The Federal Reserve is in the background making decisions that will have an effect on that.
And very often they have come into the foreground in the last few years because of the dynamic nature of our economy. I think that's a very healthy thing, actually, for there to be more awareness about how our central bank system works and the fact that it was built to be responsive to the needs of our nation.
The Fed listens. Your voice is important. Engage with that conversation because it matters.
I felt inspired at every turn in my engagement with the Federal Reserve.
Frankly, it is one of my community engagements that I am most proud of having been asked to do and enabled to do.
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Penny Pennington, Managing Partner of Edward Jones
Penny Pennington is the managing partner of Edward Jones and served on the St. Louis Fed’s board of directors from 2020 to 2025. During her two terms on the board, Pennington shared valuable insights that deepened the Fed’s understanding of business conditions.
“The Federal Reserve System is a unique central bank system,” she says. “It was set up in order to listen to the members of the community all over the United States.”
Each Federal Reserve bank has its own local board of directors that contributes business experience, community involvement, leadership and reflects the diverse interests of each Federal Reserve district.