a.. President, Joint Custody Association (1979 to present) 

  b.. Elected first President and organizing Chairman linking 225 groups throughout
U.S. concerned with family law reform, children, and family issues into National
Congress for Men (now National Congress for Fathers and Children) (1981), and
continues as board member. 

  c.. Appointed 1990, to Child Support Advisors, 16-member committee of the Judicial
Council of California. (The Judicial Council is the administrative arm of the
courts in California, San Francisco-based) 

  d.. Member, Los Angeles County Superior Court Committee implementing California's
joint custody statute and among authors of "Cooperative Parenting Following
Dissolution: Your Child Needs Both of You" distributed by the court system, (1980)


  e.. Invited guest, Norwegian government (Commissioner for Children in Norway, and
Ministry of Justice) for presentation to Parliamentarians, Oslo & Bergen, of joint
custody implementation. (1991) 

  f.. Elected First Vice President, GTI, Groupe de Travail International sur le
Divorce et la Separation, Brussels, Belgium (1984) 

  g.. Invited participant (by California Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas) in two-day
seminar of the California Commission on the Future of the Courts 'til 2020. (Dec.
1992), including coping with widening family issues in an era of diminished
budgets. 

  h.. Member (since inception in 1985) of Advisory Board for the Council on
Children's Rights. 

JOINT CUSTODY ASSOCIATION
The Joint Custody Association, originated in 1979 by James Cook, is a nonprofit
network throughout North America and Western Europe of 3,000 individuals in 43
states and 15 foreign countries: 


    a.. (a) Assessing research and conveying information about joint custody and
divorce practices. 
    b.. (b) Creating and encouraging passage of legislated statutes. 
    c.. (c) Surveying decrees and their consequences, and 
    d.. (d) Assisting in the implementation of joint custody.

  a.. Members: 
    a.. Professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, family law
attorneys and social scientists (20%) 
    b.. Concerned parents, both custodial and noncustodial, of which: 
      a.. 75% are Fathers 
      b.. 25% are Mothers

  b.. The Joint Custody Association is concerned with 36 other issues, including: 
    a.. Child Support Reform 
    b.. Abuse assessment 
    c.. Visitation Enforcement 
    d.. Mediation Practices 
    e.. Economic Survival 
    f.. Low-cost adjudication 
    g.. Unwed Father and unwed mother rights 
    h.. Standard of living rationale 
    i.. Cohabitation and premarital agreements 
    j.. Child Support Accountability 
    k.. "Best Interests" qualifications 
    l.. Amnesty for expatriate parents


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Cook was the key initiator and prime mover of California's historic AB1480
(1979), establishing joint custody and enacted by the California legislature.
Since then, Cook has authored material used in legislative debates in 40 other state
capitols. He has been on-hand, providing testimony, at legislative hearings on these
issues in over 35 state capitols and Canadian and western European cities, as well
as Congressional hearings regarding child support. 


Author, appearances and citations

  a.. Cook is the author of "Joint Custody, Sole Custody: A New Statute Reflects a
New Perspective" (Conciliation Courts Review, Volume 18, No. 1, June 1980). 

  b.. He is also cited in: 
    a.. Sharing Parenthood After Divorce, Ciji Ware, Viking Press 
    b.. Joint Custody & Shared Parenting, Jay Folberg, BNA Books 
    c.. How to Forgive Your Ex-Husband & Get On With Your Life, Marcia Wootman,
Warner Books 
    d.. Fathers' Rights, Jon Conine, Walker & Company 
    e.. Weekend Fathers, Gerald Silver, Stratford 
    f.. Divorce Book for Parents, Vicky Lansky, New American Library 
    g.. Help for Children from Infancy to Adulthood, Miriam J. Williams Wilson,
Rocky River Publ. 
    h.. The Divorce Lawyers, Emily Couric, St. Martin's Press, and others.

  c.. Congressional testimony, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, Jan 24-26 1984,
Congressional Record pgs. 295-310, regarding child support enforcement, and other
testimony. 
  d.. Attendee and frequent program participant, association-wide meetings of: 
    a.. American Bar Association's Family Law Council 
    b.. American Orthopsychiatric Association 
    c.. Association of Family and Conciliation Courts 
    d.. American Psychological Association
Previously, James Cook was:

  a.. Executive Director, California Space Shuttle Task Force,, a successful
bi-partisan effort to bring the Space Shuttle into being as a nationwide project,
to obtain a base-site at Vandenberg, California, and prime contracts for
California companies. Appointed by Senator Alan Cranston and (then) Lt. Gov. Ed
Reinecke. (1970-73) 

  b.. Producer, Public Affairs Telecasts, KCBS (then KNXT) "Insider/Outsider", a
five-year weekly series examining the problems of minorities within the city
following the "Watts riots". And, producer of Communism: Myth vs Reality", 38
half-hour programs broadcast by 80 stations analyzing Soviet Union, China, and
Communism, subsequently acquired by U.S. government and service academies. 

  c.. Staff, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California-based government policy
analysis organization. 

  d.. For nine years, member of U.S. Department of State and U.S. Information Agency
in the Middle East and in Washington, D.C. (1951-59) 
    a.. Foreign Affairs Guidance Officer, USIA News Policy Staff 
    b.. Assistant Attache, USIS, American Embassy, Tehran, Iran

  e.. Executive Vice President, California Business Properties Association. Cook
organized and managed this nonprofit liaison with government for the developers,
financiers and constructors of major commercial, business and industrial
properties (1973-83). 

Military
U.S. Air Corps, 3 years. Cryptographer. (3rd Air Commando Group) Seven battle stars,
Distinguished Unit Citation. Top Secret Clearance. 


Education

  a.. Graduate school American University, Beirut, Lebanon 
  b.. Undergraduate, B.S., University of California at Los Angeles 
  c.. Courses at Geo. Washington Univ. Law School, Washington, DC

Family
Wife: Judith Warren, Ph.D. (Clinical psychologist) Her thesis: Custody arrangements
as a function of marital health for adolescents. Private Practice (families).
Free-lance author: Teen Magazine. Counselor, Beverly Hills High School.