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.
Faculty Affiliate Dr. Fenaba R. Addo, Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was quoted in two stories—for Duke News and for The Charlotte Post—for her recent research on the persistent and growing racial wealth gap in the United States. Addo’s paper—“Setting the Record Straight on Racial Wealth Inequality” was…
Research Affiliate Dr. Eric Griffith published a paper on the relation between religion/spirituality and the rates of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) among Black people in the United States, finding that those who never attended religious services had significantly higher odds of being diagnosed with ADRD than those who attended services more than once…
Cook Center research was featured in Inequality.org Op-Ed on the Racial Wealth Gap. Senior Associate in Research and Communications Strategist Amber Holland takes readers through the work of Cook Center researchers to address questions about the Racial Wealth Gap and debunk common myths in their new study “Setting the Record Straight on Racial Wealth Inequality”….
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…
