When I first met Lisa D. Cook at an economics seminar in 2017, I had no clue that she would change the trajectory of my entire life. She wore a black suit with a white pearl necklace, and like me, spoke with authority — with conviction. As the first Black woman economist I ever came across, Dr. Cook was everything that I hoped to become.
We became fast friends, and, shortly thereafter, collaborators on a New York Times article about the lack of representation of Black women in economics and the discrimination we face in the profession. Democratizing and diversifying the field and practice of economics has been the focus of Dr. Cook’s career. Currently a professor of economics at Michigan State University (MSU), she has made it her life’s work to create economic policy that is based in community engagement and has unrelenting hope for a better, more inclusive future.
I want to tell you a bit about the woman I’ve come to know.
First, there are her inspiring, stellar credentials: As a Georgia native, Dr. Cook has desegregated schools, and dealt with the scars of systemic and overt racism. At Spelman College, she made history as their first Marshall Scholar. And her recent appointment to the Federal Reserve, Banking and Securities Regulators agency review transition team makes her the sole Black women Ph.D.-holding economist across all of Biden-Harris’s transition teams. If you have followed her career, Dr. Cook’s new position on the transition team comes as no surprise. Her rise within the profession has placed her at the nexus of economic policy, political office, and academic research, serving as senior adviser in the U.S. Treasury Department and a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration. Her experience with the Federal Reserve System, which oversees the health of our economy, is also unparalleled considering she has worked for four of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks in the system: New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia.
Stay up-to-date with the Teen Vogue politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take!
Dr. Cook believes more inclusive economic policy-making begins with a more diverse group of economists, and she’s helping to build up that bench. As the director of the American Economic Association Summer Program (AEASP) at MSU, a summer institute intended to encourage and prepare underrepresented minorities for graduate programs in economics and related fields, Dr. Cook was directly responsible for increasing diversity among the Federal Reserve System’s research assistant program. Under her leadership, the program has afforded emerging Black and brown economists, such as myself, the opportunity to be seen in a profession that has been grappling with racism and sexism.
The mentorship she has provided is now being paid forward. Dr. Cook has provided unwavering support for newer initiatives such as the Sadie Collective, which I cofounded. The Sadie Collective is currently the only nonprofit organization for Black women interested in careers across economics, policy, data science, and finance. Our third-annual conference takes place from February 19 to 20, 2021, and will commemorate the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in economics in the U.S.: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander. Leading Black women in policy, health care, and technology will be featured, such as Dambisa Moyo, Uché Blackstock, and Erika H. James, first woman dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
With Dr. Cook’s recent appointment to the Biden-Harris transition team, the administration can now show how they will make good on rhetoric around centering Black women in economic policy, considering how critical we were to the Democrats’ success in the 2020 election.
Currently, fewer than .5% of economists identify as Black women. In our NYT op-ed on the lack of representation in the field, we quoted one Black female economist who decried the “toxic” environment and called her career choice “a mistake.” Dr. Cook’s appointment serves as confirmation to every Black girl, including me, that it’s not a mistake to choose economics and related fields. In fact, as Dr. Cook’s legacy proves, when given the opportunity, Black women can be at the forefront of changing the world.
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Trump Has Failed the U.S. Working Class and Only Helped the Rich
