Amy Cook

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Amy Cook was appointed Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Stony Brook University in June 2023. As Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Cook focuses on development and refinement of academic policy and procedures with a particular emphasis on promotion and tenure. She leads curricular innovation at the provostial level as well as curricular management and state compliance. She oversees the Assistant Provost for Educational Transformation and Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). Since 2023, Cook has made improvements to the promotion and tenure process, including standardizing deadlines and clarifying qualifications for external evaluators, and improving the P&T website. She has created and supported incentive programs for the improvement and development of courses, such as Empowering Development in General Education, Landscape program review grants, and the inaugural Student Experience Project Community of Practice. She spearheaded the creation of an interdisciplinary, one credit, online asynchronous pop-up course, AI and You. 

Cook, a professor in the Department of English, has a demonstrated record of finding creative solutions to complicated challenges, building programs to increase equity and access in higher education, and advocating for the value of the arts, humanities, and intellectual curiosity and rigor across the institution. As an administrative leader, she believes that universities can and should bring research and innovation to the communities that surround and sustain us. She believes that collaborative, project-based research and learning programs are crucial for innovation, sustainability, and the retention, engagement, and success of students. 

She has held a series of leadership positions at Stony Brook, including serving as director of the Academy of Civic Life, associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), and chair of the Art Department. As associate dean, Cook co-wrote the proposal for the IDEA Fellows program in CAS, as well as created the IDEA grad program, and wrote and received external funding for two programs aimed at increasing access to higher education. Prior to that, she also served as chair of the Department of Art, and graduate director and artistic director in the Department of Theatre Arts. She’s also served on several university-wide committees, including administrative searches, promotion and tenure, and Strategic Budget Initiative groups.

In her scholarship, Cook integrates cognitive science into theatre and performance, with particular attention to Shakespeare. She has published three books, several chapters and many peer-reviewed journal articles. In 2025, she was named co-editor of Methuen’s Performance and Science series. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego and her BA from the University of Michigan.

CONTACT:
Denise Sckalor
Senior Staff Assistant
631.632.4473
407 Administration Bldg.
Stony Brook, NY 11794-1401