The Samuel DuBois Cook Center is a scholarly collaborative that studies the causes and consequences of inequality and develops remedies for these disparities and their adverse effects.
Once a student in the Hank and Billye Suber Aaron Young Scholars Summer Research Institute, Oyinkan Ajasa has come full circle, returning this summer as a teaching assistant with years of study, community work, and teaching experience at her disposal. “It feels surreal to be back in this space,” Ajasa says. “This program gave me…
Kollin Brown’s journey is one that comes full circle. Once a high school participant in the Cook Center’s Hank and Billye Suber Aaron Young Scholars Summer Research Institute, Brown returns this summer—not as a student, but as a teacher’s assistant. It has been 7 years since Brown was an Aaron Young Scholar himself. Now, after…
Core Faculty Jorge Zumaeta, Senior Director of Continuing Education and Adjunct in the Department of International Business at Florida International University, recently published an article in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management. The study examined social preference parameters and financial decision-making among welfare recipients in Miami, Florida, comparing their behaviors to those of college…
Faculty Affiliate Carliss Chatman, Professor at SMU Dedman School of Law, was quoted in a story by Marketplace examining how companies are quietly rebranding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The article explores how some corporations are scaling back or reframing public-facing DEI language amid political scrutiny. And, that the broader landscape is more nuanced…
February 20, 2026 — A new first-of-its-kind study of nearly 3,000 adults in New York City finds significant inequities in wealth and health outcomes across the 11 most common racial and ethnic groups, showing that Black and Latino New Yorkers have less wealth and unfairly worse health outcomes compared to others. Conducted in June 2024 by…
Faculty Affiliate Omer Ali is an Assistant Professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh, and previous postdoctoral fellow a the Cook Center. Ali is the lead researcher on a new article published in Regional Science and Urban Economics this month examining the relationship between race and home values in Durham, North Carolina. The study…
