Thomas Cook is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Psychology, Education and Social Policy, Joan and Serepta Harrison Chair in Ethics and Justice, and Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. His research has examined social science methods for inferring causation, and evaluation research, primarily in the areas of education, adolescent development, and community health. He has authored or edited several books on these topics, includingĀ Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Casual Inference (2002, Houghton Mifflin), Managing to Make It: Urban Families in High-Risk Neighborhoods, (1999, University of Chicago Press), and Foundations of Program Evaluation: Theories of Practice (1991, Sage Publications). He is also interested in understanding how individual and institutional factors combine to help some adolescents successfully navigate both middle class and ghetto worlds.
Dr. Cook was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Successful Adolescence in High Risk Settings, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation, and a Senior Fellow for Mathematica Policy Research. In addition, Professor Cook has been awarded the Gunnar Myrdal Prize for Science by the American Evaluation Association, the Donald T. Campbell Prize for Innovative Methodology by the Policy Science Organization, a Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association, the Sells Award for Lifetime Achievement fromĀ the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, andĀ the Rossi Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. From 2006 to 2008, Professor Cook was part of the congressionally appointed committee that evaluated Title I (No Child Left Behind).
