Marisa Casellas-Barnes, Communications and Outreach

Nathaniel Counts, senior vice president for behavioral health innovation at Mental Health America and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, will be a featured speaker at a September 13 event on using capital markets to fund investments in health equity. Ahead of the event, “Creating 21st Century Capital Markets for Better Social Outcomes: Transformative Change Through Debt Financing,” we spoke with him about the idea of funding investments in healthy communities using the savings created by better health outcomes.

Ellen Simon, Communications and Outreach

On Tuesday, May 17, the New York Fed hosted “Money and Mission: Creating 21st Century Capital Markets for Better Social Outcomes.” The event’s featured speakers were Rev. Cory Anderson, chief innovation officer, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation; Geoffrey Canada, founder and president, Harlem Children’s Zone and William Julius Wilson Institute; Audrey Choi, senior advisor, Morgan Stanley; Andrea Levere, president emerita, Prosperity Now; and Clara Miller, president emerita, the F.B. Heron Foundation.

Otho Kerr, the New York Fed’s director of strategic partnerships and community impact investing, delivered closing remarks. His comments, lightly edited for length, follow.

Javier Silva and Tony Davis, Communications and Outreach

Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy joined New York Fed President John Williams for a moderated discussion on the intersection of health and the economy, national efforts to promote a healthy workforce, and lessons learned during the pandemic. Among other things, they discussed the link between broadband access and healthcare and the connection between infrastructure investments and health. As President Williams has noted, the New York Fed’s mission is to make the economy stronger for all, “but we can’t have a healthy economy without a healthy workforce.”

Andrew Dumont, Senior Community Development Analyst, Federal Reserve Board

On May 24, the New York Fed, in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, is hosting “Investing in Rural Prosperity,” an event that will explore opportunities to advance shared economic prosperity in rural communities across the U.S. The event will draw from, and build on, the insights in a book by the same name that I co-edited and which was published by the St. Louis Fed in collaboration with the Board of Governors.

Several contributors to the book will speak at next week’s event, and some of their key insights are summarized below.