Blake Hastings
Vice President in Charge

Blake Hastings was appointed vice president in charge of the San Antonio Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in December 2006 and assumed the position in January 2007. He is responsible for all of the office’s functions under the direction of Helen Holcomb, first vice president of the Dallas Fed.

Prior to joining the Fed, Hastings headed the Free Trade Alliance of San Antonio. He joined the organization in 1995 and became its executive director in 2001.

Hastings built on his trade expertise as export sales manager at Dorian International in White Plains, N.Y., from 1994 to 1995. He worked at the United States Trade and Development Agency in Rosslyn, Va., from 1992 to 1994 as Asia–Pacific evaluations/regional assistant.

Hastings has served on various advisory boards, and most recently was chairman of the North American Inland Port Network. In 2002, he was selected to the San Antonio Business Journal’s list of “40 under 40 Rising Stars.”

Hastings holds a master’s degree in international business from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is fluent in Mandarin, German and Spanish.

Karen Diaz
Assistant Vice President

Karen Diaz started her career with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in 1980. She was promoted to operations officer in 1993 and transferred to the San Antonio Branch, assuming oversight responsibilities for various departments.

Diaz was promoted to assistant vice president in 1998 and served as interim Branch manager for two years. Her current responsibilities include Building Services, Cash, Financial Management, Personnel and Protection.

A San Antonio native, Diaz is a graduate of Jefferson High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and an advanced degree from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1992. She was selected to participate in the Leadership Texas class of 1998.

Diaz has been actively involved in civic activities during much of her professional career. She has participated in mentor programs with inner-city school children in Dallas and San Antonio. She also has been a member of both the leadership team for the San Antonio Independent School District and the Adult Basic Education Advisory Board for the Northeast Independent School District’s Community Education Division. Diaz served for five years on the board of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s Central Area Business Council.

Branch Economist

Keith R. Phillips
Senior Economist and Policy Advisor

Keith Phillips joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in January 1984. His areas of concentration include regional economics and economic forecasting. Phillips developed business-cycle indexes for Texas and its major metro areas, which he uses to analyze business conditions in those regions. He is a contributing member of the Western Blue Chip Economic Forecasting Group, where he has been the most accurate Texas forecaster for eight out of the past thirteen years. His research and analysis have been covered in media such as CNN, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, USA Today, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, MSNBC and in media throughout Texas.

In August 1996, Phillips was transferred to the San Antonio branch in an effort to improve the regional economic coverage of the Dallas office and to better serve the needs of the South Texas community. He teaches courses in econometrics and forecasting at Trinity, Incarnate Word and St. Mary’s universities. He also teaches courses in managerial economics in the executive MBA program at UTSA. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Southern Methodist University and holds a B.A. and M.A. in economics and a bachelor of journalism degree in news/editorial from the University of Missouri at Columbia.