Kristin Forbes is the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Management and Global Economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She has regularly rotated between academia and senior policy positions. From 2014-2017 she was an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee for the Bank of England and from 2003 to 2005 she served as a member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. From 2001-2002 Forbes was a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department and over 2009-2014 she was a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers for the State of Massachusetts.

In 2019, Forbes was named an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She is currently the convener of the Bellagio Group, a research associate at the NBER and CEPR, and a member of the US Monetary Policy Forum and Council on Foreign Relations. She also serves in a number of advisory positions, such as for the Bank for International Settlements and the Managing Director for the International Monetary Fund. Forbes’ academic research addresses policy-related questions in international macroeconomics, including monetary policy, macroprudential tools, capital flows, exchange rates, inflation, and contagion. She has won numerous teaching awards and teaches one of the most popular classes at MIT's Sloan School. Before joining MIT, Forbes worked at the World Bank and Morgan Stanley.

Forbes’ academic research addresses policy-related questions in international macroeconomics, including on monetary policy, macroprudential regulation, capital flows, exchange rates, inflation, and financial contagion. She has won numerous teaching awards and teaches one of the most popular classes at MIT's Sloan School. Before joining MIT, Forbes worked at the World Bank and Morgan Stanley.

She received her PhD in Economics from MIT and graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors) from Williams College.