Jennifer G. Cooke

Jennifer Cooke is director of the CSIS Africa Program, which she joined in 2000. She works on a range of U.S.-Africa policy issues, including security, health, conflict, and democratization. She has written numerous reports, articles, and commentary for a range of U.S. and international publications. With J. Stephen Morrison, she is coeditor of U.S. Africa Policy Beyond the Bush Administration: Critical Challenges for the Obama Administration (CSIS, 2009), as well as a previous volume Africa Policy in the Clinton Years: Critical Choices for the Bush Administration (CSIS, 2001). Previously, she worked for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, as well as for the National Academy of Sciences with its Office of News and Public Information and its Committee on Human Rights.

Cooke has lived in Côte d’Ivoire and the Central Africa Republic and speaks French. She earned an M.A. in African studies and international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in government from Harvard University.