2019 Top 25 Emerging Leaders Nicole Cooper

Cooper leads national philanthropic grant-making and employee volunteerism programs for UnitedHealthcare. Her efforts are focused on expanding access to care and addressing the social determinants of health for underserved and uninsured communities. Under Cooper’s leadership, UnitedHealthcare last year developed new national, community-based public-private partnerships and invested more than $16 million in charitable grants to local not-for-profits and federally qualified health centers, reaching more than 3 million underserved and uninsured people. Before joining UnitedHealthcare, Cooper was a policy adviser in the Obama administration. She served as the Office of Minority Health’s policy lead for women’s health and the policy lead for former first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! childhood obesity initiative.