Isaiah Frank was an economist, educator, and author. Frank was a former economist for the State Department and a Johns Hopkins University professor who was considered an authority on international trade.

From 1942 until 1944, Frank was a senior economist for the Office of Strategic Services; he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as a first lieutenant until the end of the war. Returning home, he joined the U.S. Department of State staff, where he served in various posts in America and abroad, leaving in 1963 as deputy assistant secretary of state for economic affairs. He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1963, becoming William L. Clayton professor of international economics at the School of Advanced International Studies.

His undergraduate work was completed at the City College of the City University of New York in 1936; this was followed by graduate studies at Columbia University, where he finished his master's degree in 1938; later, in 1960, he completed his Ph.D. at Columbia.