Connie Cook retired from the University of Michigan (UM), where she served on the faculty and directed the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT)., the office that improves teaching on the UM campus by developing strategies and services in partnership with all 19 schools and colleges. Connie is a political scientist with a PhD from Boston University, and her research and writing concerns interest groups and political action. At UM, she taught Public Policy in Higher Education and also served as Associate Vice Provost.

Since retiring, Connie has been an active community volunteer. In 2017-18, she began working closely with VNP – collecting signatures for the petition drive, canvassing, and then training and deploying VNP speakers for town halls and workshops all over SE Michigan. To educate the public about the proposed constitutional amendment, in 2019-20 she oversaw VNP’s Community of Interest (COI) Strategy initiative, which involved working with a committee of capable VNP volunteers to engage underserved COIs in the redistricting process. Currently, Connie directs the VNP Program Evaluation Committee whose job it is to analyze and report on VNP’s work on redistricting implementation and detail best practices to share with out-of-state activists and, eventually, those Michiganders who will lead redistricting work in 2030.