T he Honorable Lisa D. Cook, Ph.D., returned to her roots and hometown in Milledgeville to give two inspirational keynote addresses at Georgia College & State University commencement ceremonies.

Governor Cook is the first Black woman and fourth native-born Georgian to serve on the Federal Reserve Board in its 111-year history. She was also a faculty member at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Michigan State University.

 

“Dr. Cook has throughout her career consistently demonstrated a commitment to mentoring and advocating for underrepresented groups in the field of economics,” said Georgia College President Cathy Cox, when introducing Cook at commencements for the university’s College of Business & Technology and College of Arts & Sciences.

“All of Dr. Cook’s impressive achievements would make her a prestigious selection as our commencement speaker this year,” Cox said, “but there is more to the story that brings her here to Georgia College today.”

Cook’s mother, the late Mary Cook, was the first Black tenured faculty member in Georgia College’s School of Nursing, where she taught for 17 years. 

Her father, the late Rev. Payton Cook, was a chaplain of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, where a building now bears his name. Her father led and participated in numerous Baldwin County community organizations and served on the university’s Foundation Board.

In addition, Cook’s two sisters have ties to Georgia College. Pamela Cook served as director of Minority Affairs for more than four years, while Melanie Cook served as a Foundation Board trustee. Both were present to hear Cook’s keynote addresses.

 

The sisters grew up with Georgia College as a second home, often visiting their mother on campus. They attended the Peabody Laboratory School as pupils for student teachers in the university’s College of Education. Their babysitters were Georgia College students, and their Baldwin County teachers were trained at Georgia College.

The family also hosted dinners for international students, who introduced the sisters to the world. Cook herself now speaks five languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish and Wolof, a Niger–Congo language spoken in a subregion of West Africa.

“I am not a graduate of GCSU,” Cook told students. “However, my roots run much deeper than that. I was born in Milledgeville and, in many ways, it was Georgia College...that was my home… I grew up here, on this campus.”

 

“My feelings about GCSU begin with immense gratitude,” she added. “It was rare in the early 1960s for colleges to hire, let alone tenure, an African-American woman or man, particularly in rural Georgia.”

For her family, Cook said, Georgia College represented the Civil Rights Movement promise that education can make the world fair and just for all people.

“For me personally, from an early age, GCSU, and the world it opened to me, was evidence that I could do anything in life and be anyone I dreamed of being, regardless of where I was raised or my race and gender,” she said.

Cook congratulated the Class of 2024, urging them to find hope and meaning in her personal story. She said Georgia College prepared them well, and they are limited only by their “motivation, preparation and imagination.”

“…whoever you are, wherever you come from, and whatever anyone has said about you and your capabilities,” Cook said, “you can be anything and anyone you want to be.”

                                                                                                         

For her many accomplishments, Cook received the highest recognition a university can bestow. 

 

Cox and GCSU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Costas Spirou presented Cook with an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from Georgia College & State University.

Cook was named to the Federal Reserve Board in 2022 by President Joe Biden to fill the final two years of an unexpired term. She was renominated and reconfirmed in 2023 to a full 14-year term that ends in 2038.

Cook received her BA degree in philosophy and physics magna cum laude from Spelman College, where she was awarded the prestigious Truman and Marshall Scholarships. She and her sister, Pamela Cook, were the first two sibling recipients of the Truman Scholarship.

As Spelman’s first Marshall Scholar, Cook earned a second BA in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford, England. Cook earned her Ph.D. in macroeconomics and international economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Her teaching career began at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where she also served as deputy director for Africa Research at Harvard’s Center for International Development.

In 2000-01, Cook was senior advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department of International Affairs. She was an international affairs fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations. She also was a national fellow and research fellow for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

 

Cook advised the Nigerian government on banking reforms and the Rwanda government on economic development.

In 2005, she became a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. Under President Barack Obama in 2011-12, Cook served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She held visiting appointments at the National Bureau of Economic Research, University of Michigan and Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

Throughout her career, Cook has been an advocate of advancing underrepresented groups in the field of economics. She worked several years as director of the American Economic Association Summer Training Program and was awarded the Impactful Mentor Award. The award recognized Cook for mentoring graduate students through AEA’s Mentoring Pipeline program.