Edward “Ned” Gramlich, a former member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and former chairman of NeighborWorks® America, died on September 5, 2007. A strong and consistent advocate for consumer protection in the financial arena, Governor Gramlich served on the NeighborWorks America board of directors from 1999 until 2005, and as board chair from 2001 to 2005.
On June 4, 2008 at its annual meeting, the NeighborWorks America board resolved to re-name the Emerging Leaders in Community and Economic Development Fellowship to The Edward M. Gramlich Fellowship in Community Development to honor this visionary leader.
Governor Gramlich was first appointed to the board of governors by President Clinton, and for most of this time he served as chair of the board's Committee on Consumer and Community Affairs. During his tenure the committee proposed, and the board adopted, important changes in the Home Owner Equity Protection Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.
He was also the board's delegate to, and chair of, the Airline Transportation Stabilization Board, a board set up to administer the $10 billion loan guarantee program enacted in response to the September 11, 2001, disaster.
Governor Gramlich resigned from the Federal Reserve to pursue several teaching and research interests. He was the Richard A. Musgrave collegiate professor in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, teaching in that program and in the new Michigan in Washington Program. He also held a part-time appointment as senior fellow at the Urban Institute, where he focused on community redevelopment, affordable housing, and entitlement issues. His keystone work was Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust, which he wrote and edited as he was undergoing medical treatment.
Before coming to the board, he was dean of Michigan's School of Public Policy, now called the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He also chaired the 1994-96 Quadrennial Advisory Council on Social Security and was staff director for the 1992 Economic Study Committee on Major League Baseball.
