Helene Cooper (born April 22, 1966) is a Liberian-born American journalist who is a Pentagon correspondent for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. Before that, she was the paper's White House correspondent in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
She joined the ''Times'' in 2004 as assistant editorial page editor.
Career
She was a member of ''The New York Times'' reporting team that received the 2015
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic R ...
for coverage of the 2014
Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa
The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...
. Cooper wrote about Liberian families in a culture of hugging and physical contact, when physical contact could suddenly spread a deadly disease. Liberians who cared for dying family members, as many did, knew they would probably get infected themselves. Other team members were Pam Belluck,
Sheri Fink
Sheri Fink is an American journalist who writes about health, medicine and science.
She received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting "for a story that chronicles the urgent life-and-death decisions made by one hospital’s exhau ...
, Adam Nossiter,
Norimitsu Onishi
is a Japanese Canadian journalist. He is a Paris correspondent for the ''New York Times'', after holding the position as Bureau Chief in Johannesburg, Jakarta, Tokyo and Abidjan.
He was a member of ''The New York Times'' reporting team that r ...
Ben C. Solomon
Ben C. Solomon (born 1987) is an American filmmaker and journalist. He is currently an international correspondent for VICE News. He was the inaugural filmmaker-in-residence at ''Frontline'' after spending nine years as a foreign correspondent ...
.
At ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', Cooper wrote about trade, politics, race, and foreign policy at the Washington and
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
bureaus from 1992 to 1997. From 1997 to 1999, she reported on the
European Monetary Union
The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages.
There are three stages of the EMU, each of which consists of prog ...
from the
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
bureau. From 1999 to 2002, she was a reporter focusing on international economics; then assistant Washington bureau chief from 2002 to 2004.
In 2008 she published a
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
, ''The House at Sugar Beach'' (
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...
National Books Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".autobiography. The ''Washington Post'' called the book "a brilliant spotlight on a land too long forgotten".
She is the author of the book ''Madame President'' about Liberia's first female president.
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
, graduating with a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in 1987. Her ancestors include two early settlers of Liberia, Elijah Johnson and Randolph Cooper. Her paternal grandfather was John Lewis Cooper, a Liberian telecommunications businessman and government minister.
In a piece about her reaction to the Trump Administration's freeze on Muslim refugees, Cooper recounted her own experience as a 13-year-old refugee leaving Liberia. Her father was shot (but survived), her cousin was executed, and her mother agreed to be gang-raped by soldiers to protect her and her sisters. They came to the U.S. on a tourist visa, which they overstayed until Ronald Reagan's amnesty gave them green cards. When she read an account of an Iranian family being taken off a plane, she remembered how her family was waiting for the takeoff in Liberia, praying that no one would take them off.
Helene Cooper is first cousins with
Wilmot Collins
Wilmot Collins (born October 15, 1963) is a Liberian-born American politician serving as the mayor of Helena, Montana. He defeated four-term incumbent mayor James E. Smith in the 2017 mayoral election on November 7, 2017, with 51% of the vote. ...
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...
, 2018, .
* ''The House at Sugar Beach'', New York:
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...