Appointed to lead the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets, Karen Brooks officially joined IFPRI on August 1, 2012. Brooks has worked for the World Bank for the past 20 years. For the last 10 years of her tenure there, she managed analytical and operational programs in agriculture and rural development for the Africa region. Brooks also worked extensively in Europe and Central Asia and in Africa; in the former on issues related to the transition from central planning and in the latter on the investment and policy agenda associated with the renewed commitment to agricultural growth. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota.
Brooks received both her PhD and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.
