Dr. Lisa D. Cook, a member of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth's Research Advisory Board, is an associate professor in the Department of Economics and in International Relations (James Madison College) at Michigan State University. As a Marshall Scholar, she received a second B.A. from Oxford University in philosophy, politics, and economics. Dr. Cook earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Among her current research interests are economic growth and development, financial institutions and markets, innovation, and economic history. As a senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the 2011-2012 academic year, Dr. Cook worked on the euro zone, financial instruments, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Her publications have appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including the American Economic Review, Explorations in Economic History, and the Business History Review, as well as in a number of books. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Bureau of Economic Research/Gates Foundation, the Economic History Association, the Social Science Research Council, and Harvard Business School, among others.

Prior to this academic appointment and while on faculty at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, she was also deputy director for Africa research and programs at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, was managing editor of the Harvard University-World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Report, and contributed to the Making Markets Work program at Harvard Business School. With fellow economist and co-author Jeffrey Sachs, she advised the governments of Nigeria and Rwanda, and, as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, she was senior adviser on finance and development at the Treasury Department from 2000 to 2001. From November 2008 to January 2009, Dr. Cook was on the Obama Presidential Transition Team and led the review of the World Bank and International Affairs division of the Treasury Department.

Dr. Cook has held positions or conducted postdoctoral research at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Philadelphia, the World Bank, the Brookings Institution, the Hoover Institution (Stanford University), Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup), and C&S Bank (now Bank of America). She was the first Marshall Scholar from Spelman College, as well as a Truman Scholar from Georgia. She speaks English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Wolof.