Former Central Bank Deputy Governor Earns Harvard MPA, Capping Career

Published: May 22, 2026

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Nyemadi D. Pearson, who served as Deputy Governor for Operations of the Central Bank of Liberia before resigning last year, has earned a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, her supporters announced this week.

Pearson completed the degree with an emphasis in Management, Leadership, and Decision-Making, a program that draws senior practitioners from government, finance, and international institutions. The achievement places her in the company of a small but distinguished group of Liberian women to have graduated from Harvard Kennedy School, a cohort that includes former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, herself a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first woman to lead an African nation.

Pearson submitted her resignation from the Central Bank in July 2024. President Joseph Boakai formally accepted her resignation on Aug. 12, 2024.

Pearson had been a fixture of Liberian financial governance for years before the controversy. She joined the Central Bank as a senior staff member and, in 2018, was appointed Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company under former President George Weah’s administration, a role that expanded her profile across two of the country’s most strategically significant state-linked institutions.

In June 2019, she was sworn in as Acting Deputy Governor for Operations at the Central Bank, with Executive Governor Nathaniel Patray describing her at the time as experienced in economics and finance and crediting her with the potential to strengthen the institution. She later assumed the post on a substantive basis, overseeing the bank’s operational divisions, including internal administration and institutional management.

Her Harvard degree now prepares her for a possible return to public life or international finance work. The Kennedy School’s MPA program in Management, Leadership, and Decision-Making is tailored for mid- to senior-level officials seeking to strengthen their policy and administrative skills. Alumni hold positions across multilateral organizations, central banks, international development finance agencies, and governments worldwide.