Cooper’s Path: One of Many Firsts

Brigham and Women’s surgeon promoted to full professor

Zara Cooper is an acute care surgeon, trauma surgeon, surgical intensivist, and director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital — and her career today is far different than what she imagined for herself at the start of college.

Photo of Zara Cooper
Zara Cooper. Image: Brigham and Women's

In 2022, Cooper was promoted to professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. She is the first Black woman to receive this distinction, and it’s just one of many firsts in Cooper’s career.

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Cooper said she is humbled and honored by her promotion to full professor and touched by the outpouring of support and warm wishes from her colleagues. But there is one person she wishes she could share the moment with.

“I wish my father were here to see this,” she said.

Cooper’s parents were immigrants to the U.S., and she describes her father as a larger-than-life character. He died five years ago.

“He was traditional, and he would say, ‘Girls can’t do math and science’ — but he was eventually won over as he saw my career unfold,” said Cooper. “He knew about the commitment, the hard work, the sacrifices and the passion I have for surgery and medicine. I think he would have been gratified to see me reach this point.”

As an undergraduate, Cooper studied journalism and communication at Northwestern University and envisioned writing for The New York Times editorial pages. Her career path to the world of medicine was shaped by many experiences, including an opportunity she had to shadow a neurologist while she was writing a story about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for a philanthropic organization.