Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, is one of six new members appointed to the Community Development Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The council meets twice a year to advise St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and the bank's Community Development staff about relevant issues and development efforts in the Eighth Federal Reserve District.

Jebaraj will serve a three-year term on the council.

Council members are executives representing nonprofit organizations, financial institutions, universities, government and foundations from across the Eighth District, which includes the state of Arkansas and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

The St. Louis Fed, headquartered in St. Louis with branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, is one of 12 regional Reserve banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., comprise the Federal Reserve System.