Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Cooper is a basketball coach and former player who has won championships in college, in the Olympics, and in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Universally considered one of the best women's basketball players of all time, Cooper helped lead the Houston Comets to four consecutive national championships. She won two NCAA basketball titles in college and went on to win an Olympic gold medal in 1988 and a bronze medal in 1992. Cooper was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Cooper is the WNBA's all-time leading scorer, and the Houston Comet's all-time leader in points scored, scoring average, free throw percentage, assists and minutes played. She holds the WNBA record for the most free throws made in a game with 22. She is also the recipient of two regular season MVP awards, four finals MVP awards and two ESPY Awards.

Motivating audiences with her inspiring story and winning attitude, Cooper describes her childhood in inner-city Los Angeles, through her years as a college player at USC on a basketball scholarship, and as a professional player in Europe for a decade before her recruitment to the Comets. She also discusses her battles off the court, including her family's struggles to survive the temptations of South Central L.A. and her mother's bout with breast cancer.

Cooper had the odds stacked against her while growing up in impoverished Watts, California. She was the middle child of eight siblings, and was abused by both her father and an older brother. But she had a great role model in her mother, who taught her to strive to be the best she could be, no matter what the odds.

In addition to her basketball talents, Cooper is an accomplished author. She chronicled her remarkable story in "She Got Game: My Personal Odyssey," and has published a book project with elementary school children titled "Modern Day Fairy Tales." She is a proponent of Title IX, the federal law enabling gender equality in university sports, and co-chairs a federal commission put forth by President George W. Bush devoted to preserving and improving the law.

An active literacy advocate and mother of twins, Cooper travels the country to promote children's education issues. She started an inner city after-school program to provide tutoring, computer training and other alternatives to drugs and gangs. After her mother's bout with breast cancer, Cooper devotes much of her time and money raising awareness of the disease as a spokesperson for Concept Cure.