2022 Distinguished Scientist Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH, FAHA

Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH, FAHA
James F. Fries Professor of Medicine and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health
Baltimore, MD

Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH is the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Equity in Health and Health Care at Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also the Founder and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity.

A general internist, epidemiologist, and health services researcher, Dr. Cooper studies how racism and socioeconomic factors shape patient care, and how health systems, with communities, can improve the health of populations with complex medical and social needs. She and her colleagues work in partnership with health systems and community-based organizations to identify interventions that alleviate racial and income health disparities and translate them into practice and policy changes that mean better health for communities.

The author of the book, “Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem?” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021), Dr. Cooper is a 2007 MacArthur Fellow and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. She is a recipient of the Herbert W. Nickens Award for outstanding contributions to promoting social justice in medical education and equity in health care from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award from the American Public Health Association. Dr. Cooper has served as a Trustee of the American Heart Association (Mid-Atlantic Affiliate and Greater Baltimore Chapter). In September 2021, she was appointed by President Joseph Biden to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Dr. Cooper received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, her Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory University.