Caren Cooper

Caren Cooper is a Professor at North Carolina State University in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources. Her research focuses on geospatial analytics to study bird ecology, environmental hazards, and equity in environmental data. She leads the Public Science Lab, developing participatory programs to engage volunteers in large-scale environmental data collection. Her work emphasizes racial and economic disparities in environmental risks and the representativeness of scientific data.

Research interests include urban forest ecosystem services, citizen science methodology, and ethical frameworks for participatory projects. Notable projects include Crowd the Tap to assess lead plumbing disparities and the IDEAL Guide for inclusive science initiatives. Cooper has secured grants totaling over $2M from NSF, DoD, and other agencies for projects addressing environmental justice, STEM diversity, and citizen science infrastructure.

Her publications span ethics in citizen science, participatory science design, and environmental equity. Cooper collaborates with organizations like the Citizen Science Association and SciStarter to advance equitable practices. She teaches courses on science communication and public engagement, leveraging interdisciplinary approaches at NC State.

Labs/Teams: Public Science Lab, IDEAL Working Group. Key grants include 'Advancing Capacity for a Resilient NC Sentinel Landscape' ($124K) and 'Iterative Improvement of IDEAL Participatory Science' ($1.1M).