Cynthia R. Cook

CYNTHIA R. COOK, AM ’93, PhD ’99, sociology, is a senior fellow in the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. An expert on defense policy and innovation, she is widely published on acquisition reform, supply chain resilience, and the production and sustainment of military systems. Cook has advised policymakers across multiple administrations, briefing Department of Defense and allied defense leaders on industrial base policy. She serves on the editorial board of the Defense Acquisition Research Journal, is an adjunct professor and has advised dissertations at the RAND Graduate School and is affiliated with the Acquisition Innovation Research Center and the Institute for Defense Analyses' Defense Management Institute. Before joining CSIS, Cook spent more than two decades at RAND as a senior management scientist. Earlier in her career, she was a research specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lean Aerospace Initiative and a corporate finance analyst at a New York investment bank. Cook holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.