Chairman House Republican Caucus

Chairman Health and Human Services

HD 41 (R-Marietta)

Born in Houston, Texas, Sharon is proud to have called Georgia home for over 25 years.  She is currently serving her fifth term as the State Representative for the 41st District of Georgia.  In 2002, she was elected Caucus Chair for the Republican Members of the House, ranking her third in that chamber’s Republican leadership.  Sharon and her husband Dr. Tom Cooper have just celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary and have lived in the district 21 of those years.

Rep. Cooper is an accomplished nurse and medical administrator.  She holds a variety of degrees, including a BS in Child Development from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; an MA in Education with an emphasis on disadvantaged learners from the University of South Florida and MSN in Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia. 

Sharon is also an author, having written two textbooks on Psychiatric Nursing.  She also authored  Taxpayer’s Tea Party – a how- to book written in 1994 that encourages the average citizen to become politically active.

Rep. Cooper successfully passed a major revision of the state’s stalking law in 1998.  That year she was Georgia’s nominee for National Republican Freshman Legislator of the Year and in 2000 she was chosen Representative of the Year by the state wide Georgia Republican Party.  In 2002 US Attorney General Ashcroft appointed Rep. Cooper, on recommendation from the White House, to the President’s 30-member National Advisory Committee On Violence Against Women.  Currently she also serves on First Lady Mary Perdue’s Advisory Committee on Foster Care.

In the House, Rep. Cooper chairs the Health & Human Services Committee and is an adhoc member of the Appropriation Committee health section.  She is a member of the important Rules Committee along with serving on Judiciary-non Civil, Higher Education and Ethics.