NDSU President Dr. David Cook talks about the opportunity to return to his alma mater, Iowa State University, with The Flag’s Scott Hennen
FARGO – NDSU President Dr. David Cook said a decision to return to his alma mater, and the area he grew up in, wasn’t an easy decision.
“We love the people we’ve met here, but Ames, Iowa is where both my wife and I grew up and we both went to Iowa State and have family there. My parents are there. Her mother is there,” he told The Flag’s Scott Hennen. “it was kind of a just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us and we’re pretty blessed to be able to head back. But it was a gut-wrenching decision for sure.”
Cook said he hasn’t always wanted to be a leader of a higher educational institution.
“I loved teaching early on,” he said. “And then started to learn more about research and the role there.”
Prior to joining NDSU, Cook held executive leadership roles at the University of Kansas, where he served as vice chancellor for Public Affairs and Economic Development and vice chancellor of the KU Edwards Campus, along with at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
He said it was at the University of Kansas Medical Center where he was ‘given a number of opportunities to do more and more administrative work’ before being nominated to be a fellow at the American Council on Education at North Carolina Chapel Hill in educational leadership.
Cook begins at Iowa State University on March 1, 2026.
