Kevin Cooke, Ph.D.

Dr. Kevin Cooke is the Assistant Vice President, Research Policy at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). He works with members of the APLU Council on Research (COR) to understand policy impacts to member campuses and develop strategy in response to federal government policies and regulations affecting research and innovation programs.  These lessons are shared to promote best practices for the administration of university research operations. His responsibilities include content planning for COR meetings and leading COR programs such as the NSF-funded CENTRAL Conference.  Dr. Cooke is the PI of the CENTRAL project, charting the skills and career paths to senior research leadership, and oversees the analysis of the 2025 APLU Decadal Survey of Senior Research Officers and Their Responsibilities.    

Prior to joining the APLU, Kevin was selected as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow to work at the National Science Foundation (NSF). While at the NSF, he was hosted in the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program where he conducted analyses for use in the Future of NSF EPSCoR strategic visioning process.  Dr. Cooke earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences & Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology.