Donna Cooper
Senior Fellow
Donna Cooper is a Senior Fellow with the Economic Policy team at American Progress.
Formerly the deputy mayor for policy for Philadelphia and secretary of policy and planning for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Cooper brings 20 years managing large-scale programs to assist struggling families to exit poverty. Her experience ranges from homeless jobs programs to holistic training and support programs aimed at single mothers. She designed the Greater Philadelphia Works program, one of the nation’s largest and most successful efforts to help women on welfare achieve self-sufficiency. In founding Good Schools Pennsylvania she cemented equitable funding for public education as the number one issue in Pennsylvania’s 2002 gubernatorial race. The victor in that race, Ed Rendell, hired Cooper as his secretary of policy leading his education improvement strategy.
In her eight years as secretary, the Pennsylvania education strategy boosted student achievement more than any other state in the nation while also making record progress for closing the school funding gap. Cooper also led Rendell’s energy, infrastructure, and health care teams, which crafted innovative strategies that led Pennsylvania to the front of the pack in achieving reduction in greenhouse gases, expanded renewable energy production, jobs created from infrastructure investment, and the most effective chronic care reduction system in the nation. She is a native Philadelphian.
Email: dcooper /@\ americanprogress.org
Articles by Donna Cooper
- Auditing the Cost of the Virginia Tech Massacre, April 12, 2012
- House Republicans Want to Punish the Poor, March 26, 2012
- Interactive Map: House Republicans' Latest Assault on Nutrition Assistance, March 26, 2012
- Interactive Map: How Cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Affect Your State, March 19, 2012
- What's wrong with Fishtown?, February 27, 2012
- Putting Big Oil Subsidies to Work, February 21, 2012
- Meeting the Infrastructure Imperative, February 16, 2012
- Seven Fatal Flaws in the House Highway Bill, February 9, 2012
- Will Congress Block Infrastructure Spending?, January 25, 2012
- Not Fixing Our Infrastructure, Not Creating Jobs, November 9, 2011
- Infographic: House Appropriations Bill Ignores the Other 99 Percent, October 13, 2011
- Hunger in America, October 5, 2011
- Interactive Map: Costs of Hunger, October 5, 2011
- Repairing Bridges Can Lift Families Out of Poverty, September 27, 2011
- Congress Can Up Infrastructure Investment Now, September 14, 2011
- Holding American Workers Hostage to Stop Unions, September 7, 2011
- Destroying Our Infrastructure and Our Construction Industry, August 31, 2011
- Spurring Job Creation in the Private Sector, August 26, 2011
- Las Decisiones que Quedan por Hacer en el Nuevo Acuerdo de la Deuda, August 12, 2011
- The Choices Still to Be Made in the New Debt Deal , August 10, 2011
- What You Need When You’re Poor, August 5, 2011
- Increasing the Impact of Federal and State Funds for Water Infrastructure, August 2, 2011
- Let It Flow, August 2, 2011
- Don’t Let Freight Economy Run off the Rails, July 20, 2011
- Buy America Works , July 15, 2011
- Employment Weakness Calls for Stronger Transportation Bill, July 8, 2011
- Rep. Ryan’s Proposed Infrastructure Savings Don’t Add Up, April 8, 2011
- Finding Common Ground in the New Congress, April 5, 2011
- Republican Budget Cuts Promote 'Trickle Up' Poverty, April 5, 2011
- Why Gov. Corbett Is Silent on Union Benefits, April 5, 2011
- Infrastructure Matters, March 18, 2011
- Budget Cuts that Work, March 3, 2011
- Infographic: Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts, February 22, 2011
- Community Program in Crosshairs Must Target Performance , February 11, 2011
- Ineffective and Unfair, February 10, 2011
- Our Infrastructure Challenge, February 9, 2011
- Procurement Savings of $400 Billion Are There for the Asking: President Obama and His Team Must Show the Way, December 3, 2010
