Bostic named first African-American regional Federal Reserve president

March 13 (UPI) -- Raphael Bostic was named president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve on Monday, becoming the first African American to serve as a Federal Reserve regional chief.

Bostic, 50, is scheduled to begin his tenure on June 5 and will have a vote on the Fed's rotating committee, which determines interest rates, in 2018. He will replace Dennis Lockhart, who retired from the position on Feb. 28 after 10 years.

The appointment comes after Federal reserve Chairman Janet Yellen was criticized last year by congressional leaders for the Fed's lack of diversity. Of 231 Fed employees in Washington, 17 are high-level African-American employees, CNN reported Monday.

Bostic earned economics and psychology degrees at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. He worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1999, and again, as an assistant secretary for HUD policy development, from 2009 to 2012, the Atlanta Federal Reserve said.