Professor of Policy Analysis, RAND School of Public Policy, and Adjunct Management Scientist, RAND
Cynthia R. Cook is an adjunct management scientist at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy. Since joining RAND in 1997, Cook led and worked on a wide range of studies for FEMA, the United States Department of Defense, Australia, Canada, and the UK on subjects including disaster recovery, defense acquisition policy and organization, cost analysis, defense industrial base, weapon systems production and sustainment, and contracting practices. Notable research leadership includes the support for the government of Puerto Rico in the development of their congressionally mandated hurricane economic and disaster recovery plan, and the publication of 20 supplementary analytic reports on recovery in every sector of the island's society. She led the implementation research for the 2010 report “Sexual Orientation and U.S. Military Personnel Policy,” which contributed to the elimination of Don't Ask Don't Tell. RAND management jobs include terms as the associate director of Project AIR FORCE and as the director of the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center in the National Security Research Division. Prior to joining RAND, Cook was a research specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working on the Lean Aerospace Initiative. Before her graduate studies, Cook worked in New York as an investment banker, specializing in high-yield finance. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University and a B.S. in management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ph.D. in sociology, Harvard University; B.S. in management, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
