Janet Yellen ’67, the first female chair of the Federal Reserve and first female secretary of the treasury department, received the Elliot L. Richardson Prize for Excellence in Public Service on Wednesday. In an interview with The Herald, Yellen spoke about her career in public service, the Trump administration’s recent actions against the Fed and the federal government’s attempts to implement sweeping tariffs. For Yellen, Richardson demonstrates “how possible it is to be highly ethical” in public service positions. “But once I saw how satisfying it was, I was very open to having a much larger share of my career be in public service,” she said. To Yellen, President Trump’s actions targeting higher education funding pose an additional threat to the American economy.