Staff Biography

Leslie C. Cooper, PhD, MPH, BSN, RN CAPTAIN/USPHS Nurse Epidemiologist NIH/NCI/CRCHD Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities National Cancer Institute 6116 Executive Blvd., Suite 602 Rockville, MD 20852 phone: (301) 402-5557 fax: (301) 435-9225 email: lc58q@nih.gov

Leslie C. Cooper, Ph.D., M.P.H., B.S.N., R.N., is an Extramural Program Official and Senior Nurse Advisor in the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD). She is responsible for assisting in the planning, developing, managing, implementing, evaluation, and dissemination of program initiatives and operations with-in the CRCHD. Dr. Cooper provides technical and scientific expertise and guidance to scientists and decision makers in the use of community-based participatory research and translational research in relation to cancer prevention and control interventions in racial/ethnic and underserved populations.

Prior to her appointment at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Cooper served at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for over eight years. At NIDA, she worked as a Program Director responsible for research involving the epidemiology and etiology of drug use as it impacted Special Populations. Dr. Cooper was also responsible for several of NIDA’s Training Grants, Cooperative Agreements, nicotine related research projects, international drug abuse epidemiology projects, and other special population projects and activities.

Dr. Cooper is an applied epidemiologist with an undergraduate degree in nursing, and an active duty member in the United States Public Health Service. Dr. Cooper has over 26 years of experience as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Cooper is a member of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), a team of more than 6,000 well-trained, highly qualified public health professionals dedicated to delivering the Nation's public health promotion and disease prevention programs and advancing public health science.