Thomas Cooke is currently Executive Director of A Better Connecticut Institute and remains active as both an academic and consultant.
Thomas Cooke is a Geographer and Demographer at the University of Connecticut. He is a Fulbright Scholar (spent at the University of Groningen) and the recipient of the Research Excellence Award in Population Geography by the American Association of Geographers. He has held visiting positions at Queen's University in the UK, the University of St Andrews, and the University of Amsterdam.
At the University of Connecticut, he directed the University of Connecticut's Urban Studies program, the Center for Population Research, and Connecticut's US Census Data Center. Before arriving at UConn in 1994, he spent two years at the Polis Center in Indianapolis as an applied demographer. At Polis, he played a vital role in developing SAVI, now the nation's largest and most comprehensive community information system.
Thomas completed his Ph.D. in Geography at Indiana University in 1993 with a minor in Economics and specializations in Demography, Econometrics, Spatial Analysis, Migration, and Urban Studies. His MA (Indiana University, Geography, 1988) and BA (The Ohio State University, Geography, 1986) degrees focused on Russian and Soviet Studies.
He also works as a demographic consultant advising state agencies, municipalities, corporations, and research institutes on US migration trends, population change and projections, quality of life rankings, workforce demographics, and the advanced analysis of Census data.
Dr. Cooke regularly consults with a variety of organizations such as the MacArthur Foundation, Rand, Brookings, the City of Indianapolis, the Lilly Endowment, and the Connecticut Department of Education and is frequently interviewed in the media including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Hartford Courant.