Fay Lomax Cook
Faculty Profile
Professor Emeritus, Human Development and Social Policy
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Biography
Fay Lomax Cook is on leave from Northwestern University at the National Science Foundation (NSF) where she was appointed Assistant Director of NSF and head of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (see www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp and www.ipr.northwestern.edu/about/news/2014/fay-lomax-cook-NSF-directorate.html for details of her appointment). At Northwestern, she is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy and faculty fellow in the Institute for Policy Research. From 1996 to 2012, she was director of Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research.
She has been president of the Gerontological Society of America; a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation; a member of the Expert Panel on Performance Outcome Measurement, U.S. Administration on Aging; a member of the Ford Foundation’s research advisory committee on Social Welfare Policy and the American Future; a scientific consultant to the National Institute on Aging; and a member of the North American Program Committee for the International Congress on Gerontology. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Her research focuses on the interrelationships between public opinion and public policy, the politics of public policy, how Americans come together to discuss policy issues, and the dynamics of public support for Social Security and other social programs. She is the author or co-author of many scholarly articles and book chapters as well as five books, including Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America with Lawrence Jacobs and Michael Delli Carpini (University of Chicago Press, 2009).
Research Interests
The interrelationships between public opinion and social policy; the politics of public policy; the effects of public deliberation on political knowledge and participation; and the dynamics of public support for older Americans.
Education
| Year | Degree | Institution |
| 1977 | PhD, Social Welfare Policy | University of Chicago |
| 1972 | MA, Social Welfare Policy | University of Chicago |
| 1968 | MA, English Literature | University of North Carolina |
| 1965 | BA, English | Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi |
Selected Publications
Bolsen, Toby, James N. Druckman, and Fay Lomax Cook. (In Press) (Working Paper/In Press/Under Review). Communication and Collective Actions: A Survey Experiment on Motivating Energy Conservation in the U.S..
Journal of Experimental Political Science.
Cook, Fay Lomax and Rachel L. Moskowitz (2014). The Great Divide: Elite and Mass Opinion about Social Security
in Robert B. Hudson, ed, The New Politics of Old Age Policy Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bolsen, Toby, James N. Druckman, and Fay Lomax Co (2014). The Influence of Partisan Motivated Reasoning on Public Opinion.
Political Behavior 36: 235-262.
Bolsen, Toby, James N. Druckman, and Fay Lomax Cook (2014). How Frames Can Undermine Support for Scientific Adaptations: Politicization and the Status Quo Bias.
Public Opinion Quarterly 78 (1): 1-26.
Cook, Fay Lomax; Benjamin I. Page; and Rachel L. Moskowitz (2014). Political Engagement by Wealthy Americans.
Political Science Quarterly.
Cook, F. L. (2011). The need for public deliberation: Giving the public a voice on affordable health insurance.
ournal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 36(5): 879-85.
Cook, F.L., L.R Jacobs, and Dukhong Kim (2010). Trusting What You Know: Information, Knowledge, and Confidence in Social Security.
Journal of Politics).
Cook, F. L. and M. Czaplewski (2009). Public Opinion and Social Insurance: The American Experience
in Leah Rogne, Carroll Estes, Brian Grossman, Brooke Hollister, and Erica Solway, Social Insurance and Social Justice: Social Security, Medicare, and the Campaign Against Entitlements Springer Publishing Company.
Jacobs, Lawrence R., Fay Lomax Cook, and Michael X. Delli Carpini (2009).
Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bolsen, T. and Cook, F.L (2008). Public Opinion on Energy Policy 1974-2006.
Public Opinion Quarterly : 364-388.
Cook, F. L.; M. X. Delli Carpini, and L. R. Jacobs (2007). Who Deliberates? Discursive Participation in America
in Rosenberg, Shawn, Can the People Govern? Deliberation, Participation and Democracy (pp. 25_40). MacMillan.
Cook, F.L (2005). Navigating Pension Policy in the United States: From the Politics of Consensus to the Politics of Dissensus about Social Security.
Tocqueville Review: 37_66.
Cook, F. L., with M. Delli Carpini and L. Jacobs (2004). Public deliberation, discursive participation, and citizen engagement.
Annual Review of Political Science.
Cook, F.L., Barabas, J. & Page, B.I. (2002). Invoking public opinion: Policy elites and social security.
Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 66:2: 235�264.
Manza, J. and Cook, F.L. (2002). A democratic polity? Three views of policy responsiveness to public opinion in the United States.
American Politics Research, vol. 30:6: 630�667.
Cook, F.L. and Jacobs, L.R. (2002). Assessing assumptions about American attitudes about Social Security: Popular claims meet hard data
in Edelman, P. & Salisbury, D.L., The Future of Social Insurance (pp. 82�110). Washington, D.C.: Brooking Institution Press.
Cook, F. L., with J. Barabas and B. Page (2002). Policy elites invoke public opinion: Polls, policy debates and the future of social security
in F.L. Cook, J. Manza, and B. Page, Navigating Public Opinion: Polls, Policy, and the Future of American Democracy Oxford University Press.
Cook, F.L. (2002). Intergenerational equity
in D. J. Ekerdt, R. A. Applebaum, K. C. Holden, S. G. Post, K. Rockwood, R. Schulta, R. L. Sprott, and P. Uhlenberg, Encyclopedia of Aging Springer Publishing Company.
Cook, F. L. (2002). Living longer, living better: The challenge to policymakers.
Living Longer, Living Better, Special Committee on Aging.
Cook, F. L., with J. Manza and B. Page (2002).
Navigating Public Opinion: Polls, Policy, and the Future of American Democracy. Oxford University Press.
Cook, F. L., with Edith J. Barrett (1992).
Support for the American Welfare State: The Views of Congress and the Public.. Columbia University Press.
Service/Recognition
| Year | Organization | Position | Description |
| 2013 | American Political Science Association | Paper Presented | American Political Science Association’s Franklin L. Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Best Paper Delivered at Annual Conference |
| 2012 | International Conference on Aging and Social Security. Zhejiang University and Gerontological Society of America, Hangzhou, China. | Invited Keynote Address | |
| 2010 | Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden | Invited Keynote Address | |
| 2010 | Roper Center Academic Advisory Board | Founding member | |
| 2004 | Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), France | Visiting Scholar | |
| 2000 | Gerontological Society of America | President | |
| 1999 | Virginia Little Memorial Lecture, University of Vermont | Lecturer | |
| 1999 | Institute on Aging, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | Distinguished Lecturer | |
| 1997 | Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development | Distinguished Guest Lecturer | |
| 1997 | Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA | Fellow | |
| 1996 | Gerontological Society of America | Elected Fellow | |
| 1990 | National Academy of Social Insurance | Elected Fellow |