IFPRI Director General, Shenggen Fan, announced Monday that Dr. Karen Brooks has been named as Director of the new CGIAR research program on Policies, Institutions and Markets.

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.

Karen Brooks officially joins the IFPRI staff on August 1, 2012.