Mark Snead is the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's economist and lead officer for the Denver Branch, which serves Colorado, Wyoming and northern New Mexico. In this role, he is responsible for evaluating developments in the regional economy. This research forms the basis for his participation in briefings prior to the meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank, Mr. Snead was with Oklahoma State University. He was appointed Research Economist on the Oklahoma State Econometric Model in the Department of Economics and Legal Studies at Oklahoma State University in 2000, and he was named the founding Director of OSU's Center for Applied Economic Research in 2004.