President Barack Obama announced Friday morning that UC Regent Monica Lozano and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, a professor of business and public policy at the Haas School of Business, have been selected to be members of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Lozano and Tyson will meet regularly with the president and his staff in order to offer ground-level economic policy recommendations from outside the government.

David Vogel, a Haas professor who works with Tyson, said that he believes Tyson will be an outstanding addition to Obama's team.

"Tyson combines a first-rate understanding of economic issues with strong communication skills and

excellent political judgment. Both President Obama and the country will benefit from her advice."

The board is comprised of 15 members in addition to its chair, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and Austan Goolsbee, the staff director and chief economist.

Despite the appointment and regular meetings with the president, Tyson will continue to teach a course on "Business Opportunities and Challenges in the Emerging Market" this semester through the Berkeley-Columbia Executive M.B.A. Program.

Tyson is no stranger to high-profile economic advising or the Obama administration. From 1993-1995 she served as President Clinton's national economic adviser.

Since Obama's election in November, Tyson and Robert Reich, a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, have served on Obama's 17-person Transition Economic Advisory Board.

In creating an advisory board full of D.C. outsiders hailing from the corporate world, labor unions and academia, Obama said in a press conference that he seeks, "to ensure that no stone is unturned as we work to put people back to work to get our economy moving."

In a November press conference, Obama announced that the board's initial focus would be to brainstorm techniques for jump starting the sagging economy.

Tyson served as the Dean of the Haas School of Business from 1998-2001 and is currently the S.K. and Angela Chan Chair in Global

Management at Haas.

Tyson will join several other current and former UC Berkeley professors as key advisers to President Obama. Last month, Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1994, was confirmed as Secretary of Energy.

In November, Christina Romer, an economics professor at UC Berkeley since 1988, was named as the chair of Council of Economic Advisers.

Steve Tadelis, Tyson's colleague and an associate professor at Haas, said that he felt Tyson could provide sharp and insightful advice for the president.

"You'd be hard pressed to find someone better positioned for this kind of committee," Tadelis said.

Tags: BARACK OBAMA, HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, UC BOARD OF REGENTS