Dr. Mona Lena Krook is an award winning political scientist who currently serves as the Chair of Women and Politics PhD Program at Rutgers University. A political science professor, Krook studies the political representation of women, focusing on gender quotas in government and violence against women in politics. In 2026, Krook published Elect Women for a Change: The Path to Gender Parity in Politics, which makes a clear and compelling case for why gender parity in politics still matters and how it can be achieved. In 2009, Krook published Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide, one of the first attempts to analyze gender quotas in a comparative framework. Krook also wrote Violence Against Women in Politics, which won the 2022 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. In addition to these works, Krook has edited or co-edited six books, and she has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Krook completed her undergraduate work in Political Science at Columbia College in 1997. She received her PhD from Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2005, with a dissertation focusing on campaigns for gender quotas around the world.