Before joining the Institute in May 2020, David Cole served as the executive director of the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware. Prior to his tenure at Hagley, Cole held positions as a vice president of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as the director of strategic initiatives for the Harvard Art Museums. Cole has been a Henry Luce Foundation Fellow and a research fellow of the Learning Innovations Laboratory of Harvard University. He has taught at Harvard University, Rice University, and the University of Texas, Austin. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he received an MA from Harvard University and a PhD from the University of Texas, Austin.