Maude Toussaint-Comeau is a senior economist and economic advisor in the community development and policy studies division of the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Her work has consisted of identifying public policy concerns, conducting applied policy-oriented research, and supporting the bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) process. She has also spearheaded a number of outreach and research initiatives to inform policy and promote revitalization on the South and West Sides of Chicago, in Detroit, and in other minority neighborhoods in the Seventh District. Her current research and publications are on banking infrastructure in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods; minority depository institutions; and capitalization of Community Development Financial Institutions.

Toussaint-Comeau is engaged in several professional services activities. She is currently the elected nonacademic director on the board of Western Economic Association International. She is serving as the guest editor and a contributing author for a special issue of the Contemporary Economic Policy Journal on the economics of the middle class. She is also serving as a research advisor committee member for the 2020 ALICE reports for the states of Indiana and Illinois. In the past, she served as an economic advisor for the Council of Economic Advisors to the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, and as a co-chair of a business development committee and a catalyst committee member for the Greater Chatham Initiative.

Toussaint-Comeau received a 2017 Presidential Award from the Chicago Fed for research and initiatives to uplift minority businesses and revitalization of low-income neighborhoods. She is also the recipient of the 2017 Visionary Award from Chicago United for research projects on diversity in senior leadership and corporate inclusion.

Toussaint-Comeau holds a PhD in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.