Lee Jones, regional executive and senior officer of the Nashville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta will address "Federal Reserve Response to the Current Economic Crisis" on Wednesday from 2-3 p.m. in the UTC University Center Auditorium. Mr. Jones will address the Federal Reserve activities in the region, the economic crisis, the Fed's response and the economic outlook going forward.

This event is sponsored by the UTC Department of Economics and the Economics Club.

Mr. Jones is responsible for the branch's board of directors, oversees Nashville's economic and financial education programs, and provides regional input into the Atlanta Fed's monetary policy process.

Mr. Jones represents the Fed in developing relationships and organizing and participating in activities throughout the Middle and East Tennessee region designed to gather both quantitative data and anecdotal grassroots information on economic conditions. This information is provided to Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart and his staff of economists for formulating monetary policy at Federal Open Market Committee meetings chaired by Ben Bernanke.

Other activities managed by Mr. Jones in support of the Fed's monetary policy mission include managing the branch's seven-member board of directors who meet in advance of each FOMC meeting to provide updates on economic conditions and a 12-member advisory board of small and mid sized entrepreneurial business owners from throughout the southeast that meet twice each year. Mr. Jones and others on his team are also actively involved in outreach activities to promote economic education and financial literacy in schools and communities throughout the region.

Mr. Jones began his career with the Fed in 1980 at the Bank's headquarters in Atlanta. Since that time he has held a variety of positions with the bank including at the bank's branch offices in Jacksonville, Fl. (1986-1991), Nashville (1992-2001) and Birmingham (2002-2008). In April 2008, Mr. Jones returned to Nashville to assume his current responsibilities.

Prior to joining the bank, he was a research associate at Payment Systems Inc. in Atlanta and an economic research analyst with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Jones earned both a bachelor of science degree in mass communications and a master of arts degree in economics from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Emory University in Atlanta and has attended executive leadership programs at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. He served in the United States Army from 1970 to 1973, including a tour of duty in the Republic of Vietnam.

While in Birmingham, Mr. Jones served on the board of directors and the executive committee of the Alabama Council on Economic Education. Mr. Jones also was a member of Leadership Birmingham, a select group of business leaders who study the major issues confronting the Birmingham metropolitan area. He is currently a member of the Nashville Rotary and is involved in teaching economics and personal finance to local high school students through Junior Achievement.