President Barack Obama will nominate UC Berkeley professor emeritus Janet Yellen to be chair of the Federal Reserve Wednesday.

Obama is expected to announce the nomination at an event at the White House at 3 p.m., according to Business Insider.

Obama had been considering Yellen and former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers to replace Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed, but Yellen became the front-runner for the position when Summers withdrew his name from consideration in a Sept. 15 letter to the president.

If she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be both the first female and the first UC Berkeley professor to serve in the position.

From 2004 to 2010, Yellen served as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She is currently vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Yellen served as a macroeconomics professor at the Haas School of Business beginning in 1980. In 1985 and 1988, she received the school’s Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.