Kate Cooney, Ph.D., M.S.W., is Senior Lecturer in Social Enterprise and Management at the Yale School of Management. Dr. Cooney received both an M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the U.C.L.A. Luskin School of Public Affairs. She grew up in Washington D.C. in the 1970s and 1980s. The stark economic differences between neighborhoods in the D.C. of that era inspired a deep interest and curiosity about cities, the welfare state, labor markets, inequality, racial injustice and American history as it pertains to current urban landscapes. Professor Cooney teaches classes on regional economic development in U.S. cities, including an award-winning interdisciplinary clinic on affordable housing co-taught with faculty from Yale Law School and Yale School of Architecture. Current work focuses on urban governance strategies for equitable economic development in the American city and data visualization and storytelling for the social sector. She has studied commercialization in the nonprofit sector, hybrid organizational design models for social enterprise, and employer-linked workforce development programs. She has expertise in ethnographic and qualitative research methods and community-engaged action research models. For many years, Professor Cooney served on the Board of Directors of Dwight Hall at Yale, Center for Public Service and Justice. As of 2023, Dr. Cooney is a faculty affiliate for the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In 2019, Dr. Cooney founded the Inclusive Economic Development Lab (IEDL) at the Yale School of Management. The IEDL aims to be a place where public officials, practitioners, academics, students, and engaged residents come together and learn about cutting-edge practices and scholarship on inclusive economic development. The shape of the work of the IEDL shifts each year in relationship to the theme, the local stakeholders, and the student expertise and interests but the goal each session is to develop insight, analysis, and models for action. Professor Cooney and her students in the IEDL together produce the CitySCOPE podcast.