Lisa D. Cook is an associate professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. She is also currently director of the AEA Summer Program and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Previously, Professor Cook was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She was on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2012. Professor Cook’s current research interests include economic growth and development, innovation, and financial institutions and markets. She earned a PhD in economics, specializing in macroeconomics and international economics, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Katharine G. Abraham is professor of economics and survey methodology at the University of Maryland. Abraham was commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 to 2001 and a member of the President’s Council of Advisers from 2011 to 2013. In 2016, she was appointed by President Obama to chair the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking. Her published research includes papers on unemployment and job vacancies; the contingent workforce; the work and retirement decisions of older Americans; and the measurement of economic activity. Abraham received her PhD in economics from Harvard University and her BS in economics from Iowa State University.

Jared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a senior fellow. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama’s economic team. Prior to that, he was the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute. A key focus of his research is the benefits of high-pressure labor markets.