Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell Receives Paul A. Volcker Public Integrity Award
Volcker Alliance and American Society for Public Administration Honor Powell as a Paragon of Integrity in Public Service
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY — March 23, 2026
On Saturday, March 21, the Volcker Alliance and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) awarded Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell the 2026 Paul A. Volcker Public Integrity Award. Powell graciously shared acceptance remarks, which can be viewed in full here.
Named for the late Fed Chair Paul A. Volcker, who founded the Volcker Alliance, the award honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to exemplary conduct in public service. It is presented annually at the ASPA annual conference and supported by a generous gift from Ray and Barbara Dalio.
"Chairman Powell is a paragon of integrity in public service, now and throughout his career," said Sara Mogulescu, president of the Volcker Alliance. "He has advanced monetary policy grounded in economics and objective analysis, upholding a standard of faithful service impermeable to political pressure. The Volcker Alliance is honored to recognize him in our founder's name."
Powell has served under four presidential administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, carrying out his duties—in his own words— “without political fear or favor." Before leading the Fed, he built a career spanning law, investment banking, and public service, including roles as Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary of the Treasury under President George H.W. Bush, a partnership at The Carlyle Group, and appointment to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Obama.
During his tenure as Chair of the Federal Reserve, Powell has navigated the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, confronted the highest levels of inflation in four decades, and maintained the Fed's independence amid extraordinary political pressure. Like Volcker before him, he has shown that public service sometimes demands more than making the right call. It demands making the right call when there is a cost to doing so.
“Chairman Powell’s efforts to ensure the independence and integrity of the Fed and his adherence to data-driven impartiality have been a guidepost of its decision-making process and have kept our nation’s financial systems as stable as possible,” said ASPA Executive Director and CEO Bill Shields. “This award recognizes those who choose the hard way because it is the right way; those who bring integrity to systems where obfuscation is easy; and those who speak for others who do not have a voice. We are proud to give the Chairman this award in honor of his efforts.”
Powell has spoken openly about the influence of the Volcker Alliance's late founder on his own approach to public service. He refers to Volcker as “the greatest economic public servant of the era" and has also invoked the title of Volcker's memoir, Keeping At It, as he pledged the Fed would "keep at it until the job is done." The parallels between these two leaders stretch beyond a shared job title. What connects them most deeply is the belief that when you are entrusted with serving the public, you do the work, guided not by political expediency but by courage and principle.
“Ultimately, each of us will want to look back at the arc of our lives and know that we did what was the right thing,” said Chairman Powell. “As Paul Volcker showed throughout his career, in the end, our integrity is all we have.”
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About the American Society for Public Administration
The American Society for Public Administration is the leading professional membership association for public service. Its members include federal, state and local government employees; researchers and scholars; students; nonprofit professionals; and others committed to advancing public service excellence in the United States and around the world. ASPA brings together the practitioner and academic communities to advance the practice and teaching of public administration through innovative in-person and online programming, leading and highly respected scholarship, more than 50 local chapters and 30 subject matter sections.
About the Volcker Alliance
The future of government will rely on a new generation of young, inspired professionals with the power and perspective to make change. Founded by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker, the Volcker Alliance is a nonpartisan nonprofit helping build that next generation. We help leaders of public service education strengthen their field, provide committed, change-driven students with professional pathways to government, and work with government to hire the next generation and tackle the challenges ahead.
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