Ann Cooper

Chef Ann Cooper is an internationally recognized author, chef, educator, public speaker, and advocate of healthy food for all children. In a nation where kids are born with shorter estimated life expectancies than their parents due to diet-related disease, Chef Ann has been a constant champion of school food reform as an important avenue through which to improve childhood nutrition.

In 2009, Cooper founded the Chef Ann Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping schools take action so that every child has daily access to fresh, healthy food.

Also known as the “Renegade Lunch Lady", Cooper serves as Director of Food Services for Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colorado, and is Partner of Lunch Lessons, LLC, a consultancy for school districts going through large-scale food change.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Cooper has 40 years of experience as a chef, including 17 years in school food programs. Her books "Bitter Harvest" and "Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children" have made her a leading advocate for safe, sustainable food.

Cooper has also been honored by the National Resources Defense Council, awarded an honorary doctorate from SUNY Cobleskill for her work on sustainable agriculture, and received IACP’s 2012 Humanitarian of the Year award. In 2016, she was named "One of the Top 50 Food Activists" by the Academy of Culinary Nutrition.