By Vickie Fee
Millington, Tennessee
Dr. Chris Cooper was selected by the U.S. Junior Chamber as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans for 2008. Previous recipients of this honor include Elvis Presley, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy.
As an optometrist, Dr. Chris H. Cooper, 37, daily addresses the vision needs of his patients. But his personal vision extends beyond eye charts and his own successful practice to providing medical eye care to the poor here and abroad, fostering fair trade opportunities for third-world artisans and developing business strategies for Johnson and Johnson Vision Care that have been used by the company as a global model.
Dr. Cooper received a bachelor of science degree in biology in 1993 from Wingate University in Charlotte, North Carolina. He earned his doctorate of optometry degree from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee in 1997 and completed clinical rotations at the New Mexico Regional Federal Medical Center at Kirtland Air Force Base. Dr. Cooper then undertook a post-doctorate fellowship in Ocular Disease, and completed the Executive Education for Healthcare Providers program at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is a managing partner of West Tennessee Eye, PLLC, with five eye doctors, two eye surgeons and more than 25 clinic and administrative team members in three locations. In addition to two suburban offices, West Tennessee Eye also maintains a clinic in a socio-economically depressed community in Memphis, despite the challenges of the location. Additionally, Dr. Cooper is an eye-care provider for the Church Health Center in Memphis, which serves the uninsured working poor, and for Open Arms Corporation, which serves individuals with profound mental and physical challenges.
His clinic encompasses an educational division, with an accredited residency program, which includes residents providing eye care to incarcerated patients, as well as an externship program for fourth-year optometry students to receive clinical training.
In the past decade, Dr. Cooper has made six trips to Costa Rica with the student arm of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH), which provides desperately needed eye-care services in developing nations around the globe. VOSH has committed, along with the World Health Organization, to eradicate preventable blindness by the year 2020. Dr. Cooper continues these missions fueled by the pure joy on the face of a child who can see the world around him clearly for the first time.
Closer to home, his commitment to helping those in third-world countries is demonstrated in the Global Goods Fair Trade Store, of which he is a past director. Housed inside First Congregational Church in Memphis, the store provides an opportunity for artisans and organic farmers in developing nations to sell their products for a fair price, empowering them to earn a living wage and send their children to school instead of into factories to work.
In addition to his private practice, Dr. Cooper has worked as a Professional Affairs Consultant for Johnson and Johnson Vision Care for the past three years. The first doctor to serve in this capacity for the company, Dr. Cooper now manages and directs a team of eight doctors across the United States. The success of Dr. Cooper's efforts led the company to expand the initiative globally, and now serves as a template for medical affairs liaison programs in six countries, including Korea. Dr. Cooper travels extensively sharing innovative treatments and technologies he employs in his own practice one-on-one with other doctors.
Dr. Cooper is a past recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni at Wingate University, where he currently serves on the Board of Visitors. He is charter president of the Millington Jaycees chapter and was named an Outstanding Young Tennessean in 2007.
Dr. Cooper and his family currently reside in midtown Memphis in a 1912 house, which they are restoring.