Commissioner Susan Cooper
Susan R. Cooper, M.S.N., R.N., made Tennessee history on January 20, 2007 when she became the first nurse to serve as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. Commissioner Cooper is a master’s prepared registered nurse. She earned both her bachelor and master of nursing degrees from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.
Cooper was raised in Tennessee, and considers it a great honor to have been asked by Governor Phil Bredesen to serve as Commissioner of Health. Her priorities are to protect, promote and improve the health of all Tennesseans. She considers this the most important work she will face in her career. “Now is the time that I can perhaps influence the citizens of this state in a positive manner,” said Cooper. “I hope to leave a footprint on the health status of this state.”
Cooper first came to the state level in 2005, as a special policy and health advisor to the Governor. She was charged with developing Tennessee’s Health Care Safety Net program for citizens facing dis-enrollment from TennCare. Cooper later assumed leadership of Project Diabetes, a program the Governor created to address the threat of Type 2 diabetes facing young people in Tennessee. In addition, she helped facilitate the creation of the Governor’s GetFitTN initiative. The statewide public awareness program is aimed at addressing the rising epidemic of Type 2 diabetes and risk factors that lead to diabetes, like obesity. The program involves educating adults and children how they can make modest lifestyle changes to delay or prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
Before joining state government, Cooper was a faculty member and assistant dean of Practice at Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing, overseeing the nurse-managed clinics and operations led by the School. She also served as co-director of the Health Systems Management program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.
Cooper has an extensive background in health policy, health care regulation, and evidence-based practice. She helped create the Center for Advanced Practice Nursing and Allied Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, covering the regulatory needs and credentialing for the hundreds of non-physician providers at Vanderbilt.
Cooper was born and raised in West Tennessee. Her father was an ophthalmologist and her mother was a nurse. One of the Commissioner’s first jobs as a teenager was in her father’s office in west Tennessee, checking in patients, and later performing routine vision checks. The Commissioner currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee. She enjoys spending time with her three grown children and three grandchildren. |