Sameera Fazili was the director of engagement for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s community and economic development (CED) department. She has spent her career working in domestic and international economic development, with a focus on access to finance and social enterprise. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Fazili served as a senior policy adviser at the White House’s National Economic Council where she covered retirement, consumer finance, and community and economic development. Previously, she worked at the Treasury Department on issues of domestic policy ranging from community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to housing finance to small business finance, and then as a senior adviser to the undersecretary for international affairs where she served as chief of staff.

Before her time in government, Fazili was a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School’s community and economic development clinic, where she helped start a CDFI bank and a local anti-foreclosure initiative, and expanded the clinic’s work to international microfinance. She also worked at ShoreBank, the nation’s first CDFI bank. Her work in finance has spanned consumer, housing, small business, and microfinance.

She received her law degree from Yale Law School and her bachelor of arts in social studies from Harvard College.