Janet Louise Yellen (born August 13, 1946) is an American economist, professor and Chairwoman to be of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the first woman to head the Fed in its 100-year history. A graduate from Yale with a doctorate in economics, Yellen was drawn to study economics as a path into public service and aspired as a college student to work at the Fed. Born to a Brooklyn doctor family who grew up seeing patients in the family home, she decided to pursue a career in economics after hearing Nobel prize-winning economist James Tobin speak and being impressed by his combination of academic accomplishment and public service.

Prior to her role as the Federal Reserve Chair, she was the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She was also President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Yellen wrote extensively about monetary policy and enjoyed a reputation as one of the Fed officials most willing to risk higher inflation to bring the jobless rate down. Her confirmation as the head of the central bank would mark a transformation of the Fed from an institution run by market-wise bureaucrats focused on controlling inflation to an institution run by academics committed to a broader mission of steady growth and minimal unemployment.