About Desiree Cooper

Desiree Cooper is a lawyer, an award-winning columnist and a former public radio personality. She is currently a new media content specialist who helps non-profits communicate the extraordinary impact they have upon the people they serve.

A columnist with the Detroit Free Press for 11 years, Cooper was nominated for a Pulitzer in 2000 and 2001, for her coverage of the trial of Nathaniel Abraham, an 11-year-old Pontiac who was tried as an adult for murder.

Cooper has been a frequent commentator for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” the BBC’s “Americana,” and WNET’s “Need to Know.” She has also co-hosted and served as senior correspondent for the American Public Media’s “Weekend America.”

She is also an award-winning fiction writer. Her short story, “Night Coming,” is included in Best African American Fiction 2010, guest edited by Nikki Giovanni. Her novella, “New Birth” was included in Other People’s Skin, (Atria 2007). Cooper’s interest in the human condition was shaped by her childhood as an Air Force dependent. Born in Itazuke, Japan, she spent nine of her formative years living on three different Japanese islands. She also has lived in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland and Michigan.

Cooper graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland in 1981 with a double major in journalism and economics, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Kappa Alpha. She obtained her law degree from the University of Virginia in 1984. She and her family reside in suburban Detroit.

http://www.descooper.com/