Cooper is a transformative leader with decades of experience in organizing, planning and design, and training in Black communities across the United States. She began her career as an Outreach Manager and Alternative Banking Specialist with the Center for Economic Progress. She also participated in the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Coalition with the organization. Cooper worked with the organization for six years before becoming a Fellowship Advisor with the Congressional Hunger Center. She then worked with Fresh Moves Mobile Produce Market as their Senior Project Manager, where she collaborated with other leaders to launch and expand Fresh Moves (Chicago), a mobile produce market with community programming. This organization became a nationally recognized model for food distribution and community empowerment, winning awards for its service. In 2013, she began a position with Bed-Stuy Restoration Corporation in Brooklyn, New York, as their Food and Fitness Partnership Director. With the organization, she established one of the first farm-to-early care programs in the city.

In 2015, Cooper Co-Founded the National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA), a coalition of Black-led organizations developing Black leadership and advancing Black-led visions of community. The organization also works to advance Black food and land sovereignty. She recently transitioned to Strategic Advisor for NBFJA after serving as its Executive Director and National Organizer for seven years. Her accomplishments with the organization include co-founding a coalition of over 45 Black-led food and land justice organizations.

Cooper is also a Strategic Consultant for Liberating Investments in the Food and Farm Ecosystems (LIFE). She previously served on the Movement for Black Lives leadership team, where she helped connect violence, the environment, health, and nutrition. With others on the team, they developed the Vision for Black Lives policy document in 2016, which outlined policy demands from multiple contributors. She was also a founding member of HEAL Food Alliance, a national multi-sector, multi-racial coalition working to transform food and farm systems to center communities.

Cooper's extensive knowledge and dedication to communities has won her numerous awards, including the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, the Uganda Bold Food Fellowship, the AFRE Racial Equity Fellowship, the Southern Foodways Alliance Edgerton Award, and the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression Human Rights Award. In addition, she has been featured in articles, including Essence Magazine's 2019 100 Woke List. Cooper has also used her expertise to contribute to Byant Terry's book, Black Food, and co-authored articles, including "Making Spaces Something Like Freedom: Black Feminist Praxis in the Re/Imagining of a Just Food System," among others.