Steve Edwards

About

Steve Edwards is the executive vice president for external affairs and civic engagement at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In this role, he and his team focus on the many ways the bank engages with the Chicago Fed’s Seventh District and the broader public. Responsibilities include leading all external communications, outreach and community development efforts at the Chicago Fed, including those that directly support President & CEO Austan Goolsbee. He also serves as a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee.

Previously, Edwards was an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared on Bloomberg News, BBC, and on numerous public radio stations across the nation. He served as chief content officer and interim chief executive of Chicago Public Media, one of the largest public media institutions in the nation. Previously, Edwards led WBEZ’s digital team as director of content development and served as host of two acclaimed public affairs programs, Eight-Forty-Eight and The Afternoon Shift.

From 2012 to 2017, Edwards helped launch and lead the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. As executive director, he oversaw the non-partisan Institute’s robust public events series and professional fellowships, as well as its extensive array of student internship and civic engagement programs.

Edwards came to the Bank from Koya Partners, where he worked with mission-driven organizations across the media, civic and public policy sectors as a managing director of the firm’s executive search and Connected Leadership practices.

He is a member the Economic Club of Chicago and serves on the teaching faculty of the University of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy and the Executive Club of Chicago’s LEAD program.

Edwards is a graduate of Amherst College and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.