Charles Weems has been named senior vice president in the Retail Payments Office, announced Raphael Bostic, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Bostic also named Laurel Graefe vice president and regional executive for the Nashville Branch of the Atlanta Fed and Phasteus Brooks as assistant vice president in Operations and Administrative Services.

Weems assumes responsibility for payments processing, customer support, and financial management in the RPO. He will also act as the RPO's liaison to the U.S. Treasury. Weems began his career at the Nashville Branch as a management associate in 1991. He served in various areas of financial services, including checks, accounting, and cash services. In 2004, Weems was named assistant vice president with responsibility for the Nashville Branch's check operations. He served as the check restructuring team leader for the Sixth District and managed check consolidations at the Birmingham and Nashville branches. In 2005, Weems transferred to Atlanta to manage check operations. He later joined the RPO, where he oversaw the automated clearinghouse and check processing.

Weems earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Tennessee Technological University. He attended the executive development program at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Graefe assumes responsibility for the Nashville Branch's board of directors, advising on monetary policy and overseeing economic and financial education programs. She assumes her position from her colleague Lee Jones, who is retiring.

She joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in 2005 as an intern before transitioning to an economic analyst position. Graefe held positions of increasing responsibility in the Bank's Research Department before becoming a director of the Bank's Regional Economic Information Network in 2013. In 2015, she relocated to the Nashville Branch where she was promoted to assistant vice president and deputy regional executive in 2017 for her work engaging business and community leaders in Middle and East Tennessee to bring Main Street perspectives to monetary policy deliberations.

Graefe earned her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Agnes Scott College and a master of business administration with honors from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville, Tennessee.

Brooks assumes responsibility for the Bank's Business Continuity Department and the Atlanta Law Enforcement Operations Department. He joined the Atlanta Fed in 2007 as a captain of law enforcement in the Atlanta office. In 2009 Brooks was promoted to the role of chief. He has served as the Bank's security liaison to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies as well as local business and government agencies. Prior to joining the Fed, Brooks worked for five years as the southern regional director of security for MBNA, having previously progressed within that organization. Before that, he served for 18 years in the City of Atlanta Police Department, most recently as special operations supervisor.

Brooks earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice and homeland security from Saint Leo University in Florida.