Janice L. Cooper

Janice L. Cooper serves as an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University while holding a concurrent role as Senior Project Advisor on Global Mental Health for the Carter Center Mental Health Initiative in Liberia. Her career spans research, policy, and practice implementation across US and Liberian contexts since 2010.

Education

• Policymaking & Public Administration, University of Essex
• Public Administration, Columbia University
• Health Policy, Harvard University

Her research centers on mental health integration within global health frameworks, emphasizing stigma reduction, capacity building for mental health clinicians, and psychosocial crisis response in epidemic settings like the Ebola outbreak. She specializes in community-level interventions and policy advocacy for persons living with mental illness in resource-limited environments.

Scientific Awards

• Beyond Health Award 2017 from Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Cooper has secured major project funding including World Bank support through the Japanese government for 'Supporting Psychosocial Health and Resilience,' which addresses Ebola's mental health consequences and trains 100 child/adolescent clinicians. She previously led the Carter Center's Post-Basic Mental Health Program (2010-2019) training 166 clinicians and served on the Institute of Medicine’s Ebola Clinical Trials Committee and Johns Hopkins' Ethics Working Group.

She directs the Carter Center Mental Health Initiative team in Liberia and oversees national psychosocial response systems, notably heading Liberia's Mental Health and Psychosocial Pillar during the Ebola outbreak.