Who is Lisa Cook? Fed’s first African-American woman governor removed from Fed’s board of directors by Trump

​US President Donald Trump announced on Monday (August 25, 2025) that he was removingFederal ReserveGovernorLisa Cookfrom her position on the Fed’s Board of Directors. He announced in a letter to Cook that he posted on social media. The firing decision was in place with immediate effect. Trump justified the firing by pointing to allegations that Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the board, may have falsified records to obtain favorable terms on a mortgage. In a letter posted on Truth Social, the US president said that he is removing Cook because of allegations that she committed mortgage fraud.

Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made the accusations last week. According to news agency AP, Pulte alleged that Cook had claimed two primary residences, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta, in 2021, to get better mortgage terms. Mortgage rates are often higher on second homes or those purchased to rent.

The announcement came days after Cook said she wouldn’t leave the seven-member Fed board despite Trump previously calling for her to resign. Senate Democrats had expressed support for Cook. “The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve member banks. The American people must have the full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve,” Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook. Trump had posted a copy of the letter online.

“In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity,” the letter read. Trump argued that firing Cook was constitutional, even if doing so will raise questions about control of the Fed as an independent entity.

“The executive power of the United States is vested to me as President and, as President, I have a solemn duty that the laws of the United States are faithfully enacted,” the president wrote in the letter to Cook. “I have determined that faithfully enacting the law requires your immediate removal from office,” it further stated.

Born in 1964 in Milledgeville, Georgia, Lisa Cook is a renowned American economist and academic. She received a BA in philosophy from Spelman College. As a Marshall Scholar, she received a second BA in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University. She earned a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, according to the US Federal Reserve website.

Cook took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 23, 2022, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2024. She was reappointed to the Board on September 8, 2023, and sworn in on September 13, 2023, for a term ending January 31, 2038.

Before her appointment to the Board, Dr. Cook was a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. From 2018 to 2021, she was director of the American Economic Association Summer Training Program. She was also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Previously, Cook was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. During her time at Harvard, Dr. Cook also served as deputy director for Africa Research at the Center for International Development. Before then, she was a National Fellow at Stanford University.

From 2011 to 2012, Dr. Cook served as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. From 2000 to 2001, she served as a senior adviser on finance and development in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of International Affairs. There are no reliable sources providing details or information about her family and net worth.