Diversity and Innovation – Featuring Lisa D. Cook

Free and open to the public.

Join us for a discussion between Lisa D. Cook and Betsey Stevenson on economics, development, diversity, and innovation. Professor Cook’s research on innovation and diversity has shown that while both women and underrepresented minorities have earned an increasing share of bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees in fields most associated with invention, patent activity for these groups has not increased. What does this disparity reveal about our economy and how can we close the gap? What policies might be put in place to help encourage innovation among underrepresented groups?

Register here

From the speaker’s bio:

Lisa D. Cook is Professor of Economics and International Relations at Michigan State University. She was the first Marshall Scholar from Spelman College and received a second BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University. She earned a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley with fields in macroeconomics and international economics. Prior to this appointment, she was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Deputy Director for Africa Research at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, and a National Fellow at Stanford University.

Dr. Cook is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is the author of a number of published articles, book chapters, and working papers. She is on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Economic Literature, and her research has appeared in such journals as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Growth. Among her current research interests are economic growth and development, innovation, financial institutions and markets, and economic history.

She is currently Director of the American Economic Association Summer Program and was President of the National Economic Association from 2015 to 2016. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation of the Smithsonian Institution and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

During the 2011-2012 academic year, she was on leave at the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama where she worked on innovation, the euro crisis, and small business, and has had visiting appointments at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Michigan, and the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia.