Sarah L. Cook

Sarah L. Cook is the director of the Security and Extremism Research Program. Her primary research interests include targeted violence, domestic terrorism prevention, hate crimes, radicalization, and victimization. She has extensive experience evaluating dozens of domestic terrorism prevention programs as part of the Department of Homeland Security Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grantee Evaluation project. Ms. Cook specializes in qualitative research and is adept at cognitive interviews, qualitative interviews, focus groups, user experience testing, observations, and conducting site visits.

After joining RTI in 2007, Ms. Cook began her career as a survey methodologist with an emphasis on questionnaire development, survey design, question testing, and usability. She has worked on numerous criminal justice surveys and victimization studies, including the National Crime Victimization Survey, as well as correctional facility research, including the National Inmate Study. Ms. Cook also has partnered with criminal legal system collaborators on the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Training and Technical Assistance Project. Throughout her career she has held leadership roles on projects funded by the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Justice Assistance, National Institute of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Bureau of the Census.