Lisa Cook

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Lisa Cook
Official portrait, 2022
Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Disputed
Assumed office
May 23, 2022
Disputed: August 25, 2025 – present[a]
PresidentJoe Biden
Donald Trump
Preceded byJanet Yellen
Personal details
Born
Lisa DeNell Cook

1964 (age 60–61)
EducationSpelman College (BA)
St Hilda's College, Oxford (BA)
Cheikh Anta Diop University (MA)
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
AwardsTruman Scholar (1984)
Marshall Scholar (1986)
WebsiteOfficial website
Academic background
Doctoral advisorBarry Eichengreen
David Romer
Academic work
DisciplineMacroeconomics
Economic history
InstitutionsMichigan State University
*Trump claims to have removed Cook; legality is currently contested (Cook v. Trump).

Lisa DeNell Cook (born 1964) is an American economist who was sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2022. She is the first black woman to sit on the Board. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve Board, she was elected in January 2022 to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.[2] She was also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.[3]

Cook was previously a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University and a member of the American Economic Association's Executive Committee.[4] An authority on international economics, especially the Russian economy, she has been involved in advising policymakers from the Obama Administration to the Nigerian and Rwandan governments. Her research is at the intersection of macroeconomics and economic history, with recent work in African-American history and innovation economics.[5][6] Cook is regarded as one of the few prominent black female economists[7] and has attracted attention within academia for her efforts in mentoring black women and advocating for their inclusion in the field of economics.[8]

On January 14, 2022, Joe Biden nominated Cook to serve as Federal Reserve governor;[9] she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 10 after a 50–50 vote was broken by a tie breaker vote by Kamala Harris, and took office on May 23, 2022.[10]

On August 15, 2025, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud, and sent a referral letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi regarding the matter, encouraging that an investigation be launched by the Department of Justice.[11] In September 2025, U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin has started a Department of Justice criminal investigation of Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud.[12]

On August 25, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that he was removing Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, citing alleged "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct." Federal law allows governors to be removed only “for cause,” a provision intended to protect the central bank’s independence. Cook disputed the allegations and filed suit in federal court, arguing that her dismissal was unlawful and politically motivated. As litigation proceeds, she remains legally considered an active governor,[13] pending a judicial ruling on whether the president had authority to remove her.[14]

Early life and education

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Cook, born 1964,[15] is one of three daughters of Baptist hospital chaplain Payton B. Cook and Georgia College professor of nursing Mary Murray Cook, and was raised in Milledgeville, Georgia.[16] As a child, she was involved in desegregating schools in Georgia, and still has physical scars from being attacked by segregationists when she enrolled in a formerly white school.[17] She is a cousin of chemist Percy Julian, the first African American to head a major corporate laboratory.[17]

She earned a B.A. in Physics and Philosophy (magna cum laude) from Spelman College in 1986, where she was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar. She proceeded to St Hilda's College, Oxford, as Spelman's first Marshall Scholar where she earned another B.A. in Philosophy, politics and economics in 1988. She took courses towards a master's degree in philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. After a mountain climbing trip on Mount Kilimanjaro with an economist, Cook began to seriously consider pursuing a PhD in economics.[18][5] She temporarily used a wheelchair due to a car accident, when she entered graduate school.[16] Cook earned a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997 under the guidance of Barry Eichengreen and David Romer.[19] Her dissertation focused on the underdevelopment of the banking system in czarist and post-Soviet Russia.[16][19]

Career

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Cook was a visiting assistant professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Harvard Business School from 1997 to 2002, where she was deputy director of Africa Research at Harvard's Center for International Development. From 2000 to 2001, she was a senior advisor on finance and development at the U.S. Treasury Department as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. She was a National Fellow and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University from 2002 to 2005. Cook advised the Nigerian government on its banking reforms in 2005, and the government of Rwanda on economic development.[5] In 2005, Cook joined Michigan State University as an assistant professor, becoming a tenured associate professor in 2013. She served as a Senior Economist in the Obama Administration's Council of Economic Advisers from August 2011 to August 2012.[6]

Early in her career, Cook's research focused on international economics, particularly the Russian economy. Later she has broadened her research on economic growth to focus on the economic history of African Americans.[5] Her research suggested that violence against African Americans under the Jim Crow laws led to a lower-than-expected number of actual patents filed.[20][17] Together with other economists, she has collated a long-running database on lynching in the United States.[21]

Since 2016, she has directed the American Economic Association's Summer Program for underrepresented minority students.[22] She became a member of the American Economic Association's Executive Committee in 2019.[4]

In November 2020, Cook was named a volunteer member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the Federal Reserve.[23]

Federal Reserve Board of Governors (2021–present)

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Tenure

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Cook sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by Jerome Powell in May 2022

In 2021, Senator Sherrod Brown reportedly pushed the Biden Administration to nominate Cook to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.[24] President Biden officially nominated Cook to be a member of the Board of Governors on January 14, 2022.[25] She is the first black woman on the Federal Reserve's board.[26][27]

Hearings were held on Cook's nomination before the Senate Banking Committee on February 3, 2022. On March 16, 2022, the committee deadlocked on Cook's nomination in a party-line vote, forcing the entire Senate to move to discharge her nomination out of the committee.[28][29] On March 29, 2022, the United States Senate discharged her nomination from the Senate Banking Committee by a 50–49 vote.[30] On April 26, 2022, the Senate attempted to invoke cloture on her nomination, but it was not agreed to by a 47–51 vote because Senators Chris Murphy and Ron Wyden contracted COVID-19 and were unable to vote. No Senate Republican voted for her, characterizing her as unqualified and a left-wing extremist.[31][26] On May 10, 2022, the Senate confirmed her nomination by a 51–50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote, after cloture was invoked on her nomination by a 50–49 vote.[32]

In May 2023, Biden nominated Cook for a full 14-year term.[33] Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate on September 6, 2023, by a 51–47 vote.[34]

Fraud allegations and attempted firing

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See also: Cook v. Trump

On August 15, 2025, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte accused Cook of mortgage fraud, saying she had claimed two different homes as her main residence in 2021 to get better loan terms. Pulte said he submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice.[35] The accusations involved multiple properties: one located in Michigan and the other in Georgia (both of which were allegedly claimed as primary residences), and a third property in Massachusetts which was claimed as a second home.[36]

Pulte had already made similar accusations against two other political adversaries of President Donald Trump, namely New York attorney general Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff.[27][37] During a CNBC interview on September 4, 2025, Pulte was questioned by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin about perceptions of "political weaponization". Sorkin stated that "If, for example, the tip came from inside the administration, or came from even inside your agency, with somebody who works for you ... then that creates the perception issue".[38] Pulte refused to clarify if the tip about alleged mortgage fraud had come from within the government or from the general public. Pulte also refused to comment when asked if his agency would be reviewing the records of Republican Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, who has declared three separate Texas homes as primary residences in mortgage documents, according to reporting by The New York Times.[38][39]

On August 20, Trump posted on Truth Social calling for Cook's resignation.[40] Later that day, Cook rejected the demand, saying she would not be pressured to leave her post over "some questions raised in a tweet" and promised "to take any questions about [her] financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve".[41]

On August 25, President Trump announced that he fired Cook, ostensibly for cause, because of the allegations.[42][43] In a response, Cook said "President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so." Cook's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said that: "President Trump has taken to social media to once again 'fire by tweet' and once again his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority ... We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action".[44] In the Federal Reserve's 112 years of operation, the attempted firing of Cook is the first time a president has attempted to fire a governor.[45]

On August 28, Cook filed a lawsuit against President Trump over the decision to fire her arguing that the White House has no authority to order the dismissal.[46][47][48]

On September 2, an open letter signed by 593 economists and several Nobel laureates was released; it defended Federal Reserve independence and warned that firing Cook would erode trust in "one of America's most important institutions", stating in part that "Good economic policy requires credible monetary institutions. Credible monetary institutions, in turn, require the independence of the Federal Reserve."[49][50][51]

Notes

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  1. ^ On August 25, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that he was removing Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, citing alleged misconduct. Federal law allows governors to be removed only “for cause,” a provision intended to protect the central bank’s independence. Cook disputed the allegations and filed suit in federal court, arguing that her dismissal was unlawful and politically motivated. As litigation proceeds, she remains legally considered an active governor,[1] pending a judicial ruling on whether the president had authority to remove her.

Selected works

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  • Cook, Lisa D. "Trade credit and bank finance: Financing small firms in Russia." Journal of Business venturing 14, no. 5-6 (1999): 493–518.
  • Cook, Lisa D. "Violence and economic activity: evidence from African American patents, 1870–1940." Journal of Economic Growth 19, no. 2 (2014): 221–257.
  • Atkins, Rachel, Lisa Cook, and Robert Seamans. "Discrimination in lending? Evidence from the paycheck protection program." Small Business Economics 58.2 (2022): 843-865.
  • Cook, Lisa D. and Jeffrey Sachs. "Regional public goods in international assistance." Kaul et al., Global public goods: international cooperation in the 21st century (1999): 436–449.
  • Cook, Lisa D., Maggie EC Jones, Trevon D. Logan, and David Rosé. "The evolution of access to public accommodations in the United States." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 138, no. 1 (2023): 37-102.
  • Cook, Lisa D., Trevon D. Logan, and John M. Parman. "Distinctively black names in the American past." Explorations in Economic History 53 (2014): 64–82.

References

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  1. ^ Smith, Colby; Casselman, Ben (August 29, 2025). "How the Future of the Fed Came to Rest on Lisa Cook". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2025. Until a court rules otherwise, Ms. Cook is still an active governor at the Fed. The central bank stipulated as much in a rare statement related to the president's recent actions against the institution and its members.
  2. ^ Ward, Kim (January 12, 2022). "MSU's Lisa Cook elected to Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago board". MSUToday. Michigan State University. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  3. ^ Lisa D. Cook, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
  4. ^ a b "American Economic Association". www.aeaweb.org. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Hired Pen, Inc. "Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession Profiles: Lisa D. Cook, Michigan State University". American Economic Association. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Lisa Cook". Equitable Growth. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  7. ^ Smith, Colby; Casselman, Ben (August 29, 2025). "How the Future of the Fed Came to Rest on Lisa Cook". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2025. Ms. Cook stood out as one of relatively few Black women in economics, something that remains true nearly 30 years after she earned her doctorate in the field.
  8. ^ Casselman, Ben; Tankersley, Jim (June 10, 2020). "Economics, dominated by white men, is roiled by Black Lives Matter". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Franck, Thomas (January 14, 2022). "Biden to nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision at Fed; Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson as governors". CNBC. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  10. ^ Lane, Sylvan (May 23, 2022). "Biden's Fed nominees sworn into office". The Hill. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
  11. ^ Mallin, Alexander; Charalambous, Peter; Faulders, Katherine; Bruggeman, Lucien; Rubin, Olivia (September 4, 2025). "Justice Department opens criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook: Sources". ABC News. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  12. ^ Schartz, Brian. DOJ Opens Criminal Investigation Into Fed’s Cook, Issues Subpoenas, Wall Street Journal, September 4, 2025.
  13. ^ Smith, Colby; Casselman, Ben (August 29, 2025). "How the Future of the Fed Came to Rest on Lisa Cook". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2025. Until a court rules otherwise, Ms. Cook is still an active governor at the Fed. The central bank stipulated as much in a rare statement related to the president's recent actions against the institution and its members.
  14. ^ Buchwald, Elisabeth; Mena, Bryan (August 25, 2025). "Trump says he has fired Fed governor Lisa Cook. She says she will 'continue to carry out' duties". CNN Business. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  15. ^ Basken, Paul (October 14, 2021). "Interview with Lisa Cook". Times Higher Education. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  16. ^ a b c Khang, Hyun-Sung (December 2020). "The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University". Finance & Development. International Monetary Fund. pp. 48–51. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  17. ^ a b c Childs, Mary; Duffin, Karin (June 12, 2020). "Planet Money: Patent Racism" (Podcast transcript). NPR. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
  18. ^ Hasenstab, Maria (February 20, 2019). "Mount Kilimanjaro and Becoming an Economics Professor". Women in Economics (Podcast). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  19. ^ a b Cook, Lisa DeNell (1997). Three essays on internal and external credit markets in post-Soviet and Tsarist Russia (PhD dissertation). University of California, Berkeley. OCLC 931666108. ProQuest 304344980.
  20. ^ Cook, Lisa D. (2014). "Violence and Economic Activity: Evidence from African American Patents, 1870–1940". Journal of Economic Growth. 19 (2): 221–257. doi:10.1007/s10887-014-9102-z. S2CID 153971489.
  21. ^ Cook, Lisa D. (2012). "Converging to a National Lynching Database: Recent Developments and the Way Forward". Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History. 45 (2): 55–63. doi:10.1080/01615440.2011.639289. S2CID 154428680.
  22. ^ Bhattacharya, Jhumpa (November 1, 2019). "Episode 27: Dr. Lisa D. Cook and Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman". Hidden Truths (Podcast). Oakland, California, USA: Insight Center for Community Economic Development. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  23. ^ "Agency Review Teams". President-Elect Joe Biden. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  24. ^ Franck, Thomas; Wilkie, Christina (May 21, 2021). "Key Senate Dem's choice for Fed board is an economist who would be the first Black woman to serve in that role". CNBC. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  25. ^ White House Office of the Press Secretary (January 14, 2022). "President Biden Nominates Sarah Bloom Raskin to Serve as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to Serve as Governors" (Press release). Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  26. ^ a b Rugaber, Christopher (March 29, 2022). "Senate advances Fed nominee Lisa Cook on party-line vote". Associated Press.
  27. ^ a b Aratani, Lauren (September 4, 2025). "US justice department reportedly opens criminal inquiry into Fed governor Lisa Cook". The Guardian. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  28. ^ "PN1679 — Lisa DeNell Cook — Federal Reserve System 117th Congress (2021–2022)". US Congress. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  29. ^ Lane, Sylvan (March 16, 2022). "Senate panel advances Biden Fed nominees to confirmation votes". The Hill. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  30. ^ Roll call vote 110, via Senate.gov
  31. ^ Chasmar, Jessica (February 1, 2022). "Biden Fed nominee's old tweets show she's 'hyper-partisan,' Republicans say". Fox Business.
  32. ^ Siegel, Rachel (May 10, 2022). "Economist Lisa Cook to become first Black woman on Fed board". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  33. ^ White House Office of the Press Secretary (May 12, 2023). "President Biden Announces Nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors" (Press release). Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  34. ^ "PN644 — Lisa DeNell Cook — Federal Reserve System 118th Congress (2023–2024)". US Congress. September 6, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
  35. ^ "Trump says Fed Governor Lisa Cook 'must resign' after William Pulte alleges mortgage fraud". NBC News. August 20, 2025. Retrieved August 21, 2025.
  36. ^ Isidore, Chris (August 29, 2025). "Trump official lodges new criminal referral against Fed Governor Lisa Cook | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved August 31, 2025.
  37. ^ Nguyen, Danny (August 21, 2025). "Meet the Trump housing official leading probes into the president's foes". POLITICO. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  38. ^ a b Breuninger, Kevin (September 4, 2025). "Pulte refuses to say where he got Lisa Cook mortgage fraud 'tip'". CNBC. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  39. ^ Salhotra, Pooja (July 24, 2025). "Ken Paxton Claimed Three Houses as His Primary Residence, Records Show". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  40. ^ Romm, Tony; Casselman, Ben; Smith, Colby (August 20, 2025). "President Steps Up Attack on Fed as He Demands a Governor Resign". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  41. ^ Mena, Bryan (August 20, 2025). "Trump is pressuring yet another top Fed official to resign, but she says she won't be 'bullied' | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved August 21, 2025.
  42. ^ Horsley, Scott (August 25, 2025). "Trump seeks to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook". NPR. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  43. ^ Mena, Elisabeth Buchwald, Bryan (August 26, 2025). "Lisa Cook: Trump says he has fired Fed governor, escalating his battle against the central bank | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved August 26, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  44. ^ Doherty, Erin; Mangan, Dan (August 25, 2025). "Trump tells Fed's Lisa Cook she's fired; she says 'he has no authority to do so'". CNBC. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  45. ^ Rugaber, Christopher (August 28, 2025). "Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook sues the Trump administration to overturn her firing". Associated Press News. Retrieved August 28, 2025.
  46. ^ "Fed Governor Lisa Cook Sues Trump Over Dismissal". August 28, 2025. Retrieved August 28, 2025.
  47. ^ "Read Lisa Cook's Lawsuit". The New York Times. August 28, 2025. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 29, 2025.
  48. ^ "COOK v. TRUMP, 1:25-cv-02903 - CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved August 31, 2025.
  49. ^ Breuninger, Kevin (September 2, 2025). "Fed Governor Lisa Cook 'did not ever commit mortgage fraud,' her lawyer says". CNBC. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
  50. ^ "Economists back Fed Governor Cook as Trump attempts ouster". France 24. Agence France-Presse. September 3, 2025. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
  51. ^ Deryugina, Tatyana (September 2, 2025). "Open Letter in Support of Governor Lisa Cook & Fed Independence". GitHub. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
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Government offices
Preceded by Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
2022–2025
Disputed 		Vacant