Ms. Cook previously worked as a researcher with the Turkey Project and Caspian Energy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), as a fundraising specialist for progressive non-profits and US Congressional and Senate candidates, and also as a civil rights researcher for the legal redress of the North Carolina NAACP. She also edits a publication for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C. She received her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has published articles in Today Zaman and Aksiyon and has been a commentator and moderator for various Turkish television programs and Azerbaijani newspapers.
Her areas of interest include: U.S. foreign policy; the U.S.-Turkey strategic relationship; Turkish foreign policy; civil-military relations in Turkey; Islamic social movements in Central Asia and the Middle East; geopolitics and energy security in the Southern Cooridor and Central Asia; and capacity building in democracy, governance and rule of law in Eurasia and the Middle East. She plans to pursue her MA in International Public Policy in Fall 2010.