Professor appointed as new chair of Board on Human-Systems Integration‬‬‬

Nancy J. Cooke, professor of applied psychology at ASU’s College of Technology and Innovation, has been appointed as Chair of the Board on Human-Systems Integration at the National Research Council (NRC), the operational arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cooke has served as a member of the Board (formerly the Committee on Human Systems Integration) since 2007 and has also served on NRC study committees on Human-System Design Support for Changing Technology (May 2005-March 2007), Safety and Security of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage (March 2004-Jan. 2005), and Soldier Systems (2011-present). The chair serves a three-year term, and Cooke is the first female chair in the 30-year history of the board.

The NRC’s Committee on Human Factors was established in 1980 at the request of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. It was renamed the Committee on Human-Systems Integration in recent years to better reflect the broader applicability of human factors issues, including non-military and health systems. Domains now include such areas as human factors engineering, physical ergonomics, training, occupational health and safety, health care, product design, and macro-ergonomics. In 2010, after thirty years of outstanding work by its predecessors, the Board on Human-Systems Integration was established to continue the National Research Council's tradition of addressing the broad set of human systems issues facing the Nation today.

Cooke’s most recent research focuses on the development of methods to measure and improve team communication, team coordination, team situation awareness and overall team resilience. Her article, “Training Adaptive Teams,” co-written with Jamie Gorman, psychology postdoc and Polemnia Amazeen, associate professor of psychology at ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recently received the Jerome H. Ely Human Factors Article Award at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting.