Dr. Cooper has extensive clinical experience in intensive care, trauma nursing, and critical care transport (including Life Flight). She has also held positions in nursing management and performance improvement. She earned a BSN from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1987, and she completed a Master of Science in Nursing in the Family Nurse Practitioner specialty in 2002 and a Post Master's Certificate in the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner specialty in 2008, both at Duke. In 2012, she completed the DNP at the University of Colorado-Denver.
Dr. Cooper joined the School of Nursing faculty in 2003. She teaches in core courses in acute/critical care and chronic care of adults in the School of Nursing MSN Program. She also engages in clinical practice as a Family Nurse Practitioner. She is a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, and Sigma Theta Tau.