Alan D. Barkema is senior vice president of the Regional, Public and Community Affairs Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In this role, he directs staff in the Bank's four offices with responsibility for regional economic analysis, community development, economic education, and public programs efforts throughout the Bank's seven-state region.

Since joining the Bank as a research economist in 1986, Mr. Barkema has written and spoken widely on developments in the regional and agricultural economies. He served a three-year term as professor and head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Oklahoma State University and returned to the Bank's Economic Research Department in 1999 to help launch the Bank’s Center for the Study of Rural America. In his current role, he has led the Bank’s initiative to expand the regional research and analysis activities of the former Center, adding community development research expertise in the Kansas City office and deploying regional economists to work directly with business, academic and community leaders in the Bank's Denver, Oklahoma City, and Omaha offices. The Bank's regional research includes a monthly Survey of Tenth District Manufacturers, a quarterly Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions, The Main Street Economist newsletter, and frequent contributions in The Economic Review andTEN Magazine.

A native of Alexander, Iowa, Mr. Barkema holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University and an M.S. degree from Cornell University.