Ellen Lust is the founder and director of the Governance and Local Development Institute at Cornell University and the University of Gothenburg (est. Yale University, 2013), a professor in the Department of Governance at Cornell University, Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, and the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, and Director of the Einaudi Center for International Relations at Cornell University. She is also a Senior Fellow at Alternative Policy Solutions at the American University in Cairo.  

Her research examines the role of social institutions and local authorities in governance, particularly in Southwest Asia and North Africa. She has conducted fieldwork and implemented surveys in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Zambia. She has also served as an advisor and consultant to organizations such as the World Bank, United Nations Development Fund, and USAID. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Swedish Research Council, and Hicham Alaoui Foundation have supported her work.  

She has authored numerous books, textbooks, and articles; her most recent book, a volume co-edited with Kristen Kao, Decentralization, Local Governance, and Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa, will be published by the University of Michigan Press in January 2025.