WASHINGTON, D.C. -

U.S. Department of the Treasury officials recently hired a pair of experts in economics and civil rights to serve in senior leadership roles for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Tapped for the spots were Sendhil Mullainathan, who will serve as assistant director for research, and Patrice Alexander Ficklin, who will be assistant director for fair lending.

The appointments came from Elizabeth Warren, assistant to the president and special advisor to the secretary of the Treasury on the CFPB.

Treasury mentioned Mullainathan is a professor of economics at Harvard University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Prior to joining the CFPB, Mullainathan was a co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and a board member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development.

Officials noted that Mullainathan has received a MacArthur Foundation Genius award as well as numerous other grants and fellowships, including ones from the National Science Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the Sloan Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Furthermore, Mullainathan has published extensively in top economics journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Political Economy.

Meanwhile, Treasury pointed out Ficklin comes to CFPB after most recently practicing at the civil rights law firm of Relman, Dane & Colfax, advising on civil rights issues arising in lending, employment and housing.

Prior to that, officials said Ficklin worked at Fannie Mae, where she provided fair lending, fair housing and other consumer law advice regarding mortgage products, pricing and servicing.

During her tenure at Fannie Mae, she also directed the company’s employee grievance department, conducted internal investigations, designed and implemented a mandatory non-binding arbitration program for employees, directed the corporate ethics program and revamped officer and employee performance review standards.

Treasury added that Ficklin specialized in financial institutions regulation, civil litigation, complex corporate transactions and employment law at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, now WilmerHale.

Warren offered her assessment of both CFPB appointments.

“Under Sendhil Mullainathan, the office of research will promote evidence-based policy-making at the CFPB. The office will provide analytical support to the bureau and strengthen its understanding of possible benefits and costs of potential CFPB policies,” Warren stated.

“With Patrice Ficklin at its head, the office of fair lending will provide oversight and enforcement of Federal laws intended to ensure fair, equitable and nondiscriminatory access to credit for both individuals and communities,” Warren added.