Lisa D Cook

Dr. Lisa D. Cook is a Professor in the Department of Economics and at James Madison College at Michigan State University.

Dr. Cook is the first Marshall Scholar from Spelman College. After graduating from Spelman, she went to Oxford University where she received her second Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. After receiving her degree from Oxford, she went on to earn a Ph.D in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She was also a National Fellow at Stanford University.

Currently, the research that she takes part in includes such things as economic growth, history and development, markets, financial institutions, and innovation. She is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, and was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association (AEA), in 2019.

Dr. Lisa D. Cook served in the White House as Senior Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers during the 2011-2012 academic year. Prior to that she had also been a member of the Presidential Transition Team from November of 2008 to January 2009 for President Obama. During this time she led the review of the World Bank and International Affairs division of the Treasury Department.

Some other positions that Dr. Cook has held through her career include a position on the Board of Editors for the Journal of Economic Literature. She has worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Banks of Minneapolis, New York, and Philadelphia, the World Bank. Her position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is as a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Advisory Board of the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute for the bank. Some institutions she had worked with include the Brookings Institution, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Salomon Brothers, which is now Citigroup, and C&S Bank, which is now Bank of America.

As a member of faculty at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government she also held a positionof Deputy Director for Africa Research and Programs at the Center for International Development at Harvard. With Jeffrey Sachs, she advised the governments of Nigeria and Rwanda.

Research projects that Dr. Cook has focused on include 'Patents and Economic Activity', 'Economic and Financial Crisis Expectations, and the New Poor', 'The African American and Women Inventors and Patents Data Set', 'Finance and Innovation (with Raoul Minetti)', 'Financial Reform in Emerging Markets', 'Nigerian Bank Reform and Poverty Alleviation, National Bureau of Economic Research, African Successes Program', and 'Chinese and Global Competitiveness'.