Chad Wilkerson joined the Oklahoma City Branch Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in early 2006 as Branch Executive. In this role, he serves as the Bank’s regional economist and representative in the state of Oklahoma, recruits and works closely with the branch’s board of directors and is responsible for briefing the Kansas City Fed’s president – a member of the Federal Open Market Committee – on economic and business activity in the state. He also supervises the Bank’s monthly Survey of Manufacturers.

Wilkerson has been with the Federal Reserve for nine years, beginning in Kansas City in 1998 as a research associate. He was promoted to policy economist in 2002. His research focuses on the Tenth District’s regional economy, particularly in the area of regional and local labor markets.

Wilkerson is a board member of the United Way of Central Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Council on Economic Education and a member of The Downtown Club and Economic Club of Oklahoma. He holds a master’s degree in public policy studies from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in institutions and policy from William Jewell College. As part of his undergraduate program, he studied economics for a year at Oxford University in England.

Wilkerson is from the St. Louis area and attended high school in Montgomery City, Mo., a small town in central Missouri. He enjoys attending baseball games, playing golf, traveling and reading. He is married and has two daughters.