Karen Brooks is an economist with thirty years of experience in the fields of agriculture and development.  She holds a PhD in economics from The University of Chicago  and an undergraduate degree in political science from Stanford University.  She retired in 2018 from the International Food Policy Research Institute, where she was Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets. Prior to that she worked for over twenty years at the World Bank, with emphasis on agricultural programs in Africa south of the Sahara and transition economies of Europe and Central Asia. Before joining the World Bank, she taught in the Department of Applied Economics at The University of Minnesota.  She has published on agricultural policy in centrally planned economies and youth employment in Africa, among other topics.