Associate Director 
MIT Systems Awareness Lab

U.S.: Massachusetts Hub | NORTH AMERICA

Lana Cook is a Associate Director of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab where she studies the language of systems change. Prior she served as  Assistant Director, Strategic Initiatives at MIT Open Learning, working to to incubate and support new and emerging initiatives in education, like the MIT Emerging Talent and MIT Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) programs, which brings the Institute together to find creative solutions to the challenges and opportunities in education for those who have been displaced due to conflict or climate. Cook brings her two decades of experience in teaching, tutoring, curriculum development, curation and communications to her work. Her passion is to help foster community engagement through learning. Cook earned a doctorate in English at Northeastern University, with a focus on contemporary American literature and visual culture, as well as her Bachelors of Arts at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). She also participated in the Federal TRIO Programs: Upward Bound at the University of Maine and Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at UNH.