Chief Economist, Dr. Susan Helper was on leave from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, where she is the Carlton Professor of Economics. She was formerly the chair of the Economics Department, and has been a visiting scholar at University of Oxford, the University of California (Berkeley), Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Her research focuses on the globalization of supply chains, and on how U.S. manufacturing might be revitalized.  Dr. Helper received her PhD in Economics from Harvard and her B.A. from Oberlin College in Economics, Government and Spanish. Dr. Helper lives with her husband and three bicycles in Washington, DC.  She replaces Dr. Doms, who was Chief Economist from August 2009 until December 2012, when he was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Commerce Department's Under Secretary for Economic Affairs.