The U.S. Senate recently confirmed award--winning economist and Spelman alumna Lisa D. Cook, Ph.D., C'86, for a full 14-year term on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She originally was confirmed to the Board in May 2022, making her the first Black woman to be confirmed as a Federal Reserve governor. That term would have ended on Jan. 31, 2024.

Federal Reserve governors are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate for the remainder of the 14-year term of the seat previously held by Janet Yellen. As a Fed Governor, she will be charged with helping set and implement monetary policy in the United States.

Dr. Cook, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, has worked in partnership with the Spelman economics department, chaired by Marionette Holmes, Ph.D., to increase the number of Black women, who earn Ph.Ds. in economics. From serving on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, to serving on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, and the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Dr. Cook has amassed a broad range of experiences in academia, across the financial sector, and in economic policymaking.

Dr. Cook, whose research interests include economic growth, innovation, and financial crises, has held senior positions across the federal government, first at the U.S. Department of Treasury and then at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy  (honors, magna cum laude) from Spelman, where she received the highly competitive Harry S. Truman Scholarship and the Charles E. Merrill Study Abroad Scholarship. She proceeded to St. Hilda's College at Oxford as Spelman's first Marshall Scholar, and she earned another B.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics in 1988.