Cynthia Cook, Ph.D.
Cynthia Cook is director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Her research interests include defense acquisition policy and organization, the defense industrial base, international defense cooperation, new technology development, and weapon systems production and sustainment. Dr. Cook joined CSIS from the RAND Corporation, where she led and worked on a variety of projects for sponsors across the U.S. Department of Defense, along with the Australian Department of Defense and the UK Ministry of Defense. Her management jobs included 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. Dr. Cook is also a Professor at the RAND Pardee Graduate School and serves on the Editorial Board of the Defense Acquisition Research Journal. Previously, she was a research specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working on the Lean Aerospace Initiative. Before her graduate studies, Dr. 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.