People

Metrick’s current research and teaching is focused on financial stability, including the regulation of systemic risk, the activities of complex financial institutions, and the causes and consequences of the financial crisis of 2007-2009. From August 2009 to July 2010, he served on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers and as the financial economist staffing the President’s Economic Recovery Board, where he worked extensively on what became the Dodd-Frank Act, and on many areas relating to the ongoing crisis.

Sophie Alden joined YPFS as a Research Associate in May 2024. She received a BA in International Relations and French & Francophone Studies from William & Mary and an MS in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University. Sophie is originally from Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Vincient Arnold joined the YPFS New Bagehot Project as a Research Associate in August 2022. He spent two years working for an international law firm with the antitrust and national security teams. He received a BS in Foreign Affairs with minors in Statistics and East Asian Studies from the University of Virginia. He is originally from Roanoke, Virginia.

Stacey has worked at Yale for over a decade. She formerly worked in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, the Yale School of Public Health, and the physics department—before coming to the Yale Program on Financial Stability. Before her career at Yale, Stacey worked in broadcast radio and marketing. She teaches Introduction to Business Management and Principles of Marketing to undergraduate students as an adjunct professor at Baker College.

Stacey holds a master’s degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University and a doctorate in business administration from Baker College. Her dissertation focused on workplace dynamics between women.

Stacey is a dedicated volunteer who has been volunteering with the Working Women’s Network since 2016. In addition to work, volunteering, and teaching, Stacey is happily married to Alberto. Together, they raise three children—two girls and one boy. In her free time, Stacey enjoys reading, swimming, cooking, biking, vacationing with family, movie nights, knitting, and happy hours with friends.  

Shavonda Brandon joined the YPFS team as a Research Support Assistant  in July 2019. She is originally from Bridgeport, CT. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2014 with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in English. Shavonda supports the implementation of several YPFS strategic projects.

Léo Brougher joined YPFS as a Research Associate in July 2024. Previously, he worked with the European Union’s diplomatic service in the delegation to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, covering Trade and Economic committees on behalf of the EU. He also spent time at the Office of the US Trade Representative, working within the WTO and Multilateral Affairs team. Léo holds a master’s degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree in Business Management from Babson College, with concentrations in Economics and International Relations.

In 2006, Jaan Elias became the Yale School of Management’s first Director of Case Study Research. In his time at Yale, Elias and his team developed the “raw” case study format that draw together Internet links, interactive exhibits, text and video on a multimedia, web platform. These cases have been widely used not only at Yale, but in management curriculum through the world.  Elias received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior (a joint degree program between the Harvard Sociology Department and the Harvard Business School).

Bill English joined Yale University from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he was the Senior Special Advisor to the Board for monetary policy. Over more than 20 years at the Board of Governors, he has held a range of positions, including, from 2010 to 2015, Director of the Division of Monetary Affairs and Secretary to the Federal Open Market Committee. In that position, Bill oversaw the development of monetary policy, working extensively on issues related to asset purchases, policy normalization, and policy communication. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, Bill taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago. He received a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986 and a BA in economics and mathematics from Yale University in 1982.

Greg Feldberg is a Research Scholar at the Yale School of Management and Director of Research for the Yale Program on Financial Stability. Prior to joining the YPFS, Feldberg spent six years at the Office of Financial Research, where he helmed the Office’s annual Financial Stability Report and other publications. In 2010, he was the Director of Research at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was established by Congress to investigate the causes of the global financial crisis. Feldberg spent 10 years at the Federal Reserve Board as a researcher and financial analyst. He has also worked in the financial industry, heading technology research teams at two investment banks. His research focuses on financial stability, macroprudential policy, and financial crisis management.

Deborah Felstehausen (formerly McClellan) joined the Yale Program on Financial Stability after serving as editorial director and project manager for Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and Hank Paulson in their examination of the Global Financial Crisis. That project resulted in two books—First Responders: Inside the U.S. Strategy for Fighting the Global Financial Crisis (Yale University Press, 2020) and Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and Its Lessons (Penguin Books, 2019)—and a collection of charts telling the crisis story graphically. Previously, she worked with Paulson as editorial project manager on his memoirs and oversaw editorial production for Institutional Investor magazine.

Salil joined YPFS as a Research Associate in 2022 after completing a master’s in Systemic Risk from Yale SOM. Before that, he spent six years in Mumbai at the principal investing arm of the Enam group. He was responsible for macro research at the firm, working on both private and public market transactions, while keenly observing global markets and central banks. He has also worked in financial market roles in New York and Hong Kong. Salil has bachelor’s degrees in Systems Engineering and Finance from the Wharton School as a part of the University of Pennsylvania’s M&T program.

Owen Heaphy joined the YPFS team as a Research Associate in August 2023. He graduated from Yale University with a BA in History and wrote his thesis on censorship in apartheid-era South Africa. He is originally from New Haven, CT.

Ben Hoffner joined the YPFS team as a Research Associate in August 2021. He received a B.S. in International Economics with minors in Italian and Philosophy from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is originally from San Francisco, CA.

Alex joined the Yale School of Management in 2018 and joined the YPFS team in 2019. Alex serves as the Director to YPFS and to our Master's Degree in Systemic Risk program. 

Steven is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin and the Yale School of Management. His work focuses on financial crises and systemic risk in the United States. He can be reached at steven.kelly@yale.edu.

Prior to joining the staff of the YPFS, McNamara spent several years as an associate at a law firm in New Haven where his practice focused on M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions, as well as the preparation of securities filings.  McNamara has also worked as a strategic consultant for a consulting firm focused on the social sector.  McNamara received a BBA from the University of Notre Dame and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Prior to joining the YPFS, Rhee was a fellow at the Harvard Law School’s Program on Corporate Governance and served as an editor for the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. During her fellowship, Rhee focused on corporate governance problems within U.S. public companies. Rhee also spent several years as an associate at a law firm in New York where her practice focused on securities regulation and structured finance, and a general counsel for Samsung Corporation where she managed compliance and governance issues.  Rhee received a JD from Harvard Law School.

Stella Schaefer-Brown joined the YPFS team as a Research Associate in August 2022. She is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in Iowa, majoring in Political Science and Economics with a minor in Statistics.

Wiggins joined the YPFS with over two decades of experience in securities disclosure, corporate governance, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and business law from her years as in-house counsel at Pitney Bowes and Equifax.  Wiggins was also previously an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut Law School where she co-taught a course on Tax-Exempt organizations.  She is particularly interested in the corporate governance aspects of decisions made during the crisis and teaches a version of Professor Metrick’s Global Financial Crisis class in the MBA for Executives program. Wiggins began her career at the law firm of Day, Berry and Howard.  She received a BA from Yale and a JD from Stanford Law School.