Presented by:

San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women

San Mateo County
Health Department

Ann Cooper, CEC

Ann Cooper, CEC, is the Director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley Unified School District and is the former Executive Chef and Director of Wellness and Nutrition of The Ross School in East Hampton, New York. At the Ross School, Ann cultivated an innovative food service program serving over 1300 regional, organic, seasonal and sustainable meals each day.  Ann is the author of the recently released book Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, as well as In Mother’s Kitchen: Celebrated Women Chefs Share Beloved Family Recipes, Bitter Harvest: A Chef’s Perspective on the Hidden Dangers in the Foods We Eat and What You Can do About I and A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen: The Evolution of Women Chefs.  Chef Cooper, former Executive Chef of the Putney Inn in Vermont, is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and was one of the first fifty women to be certified as an Executive Chef by the educational arm of the American Culinary Federation.

Ann’s career has taken her from positions with Holland America Cruises to Radisson Hotels to the Telluride Bluegrass and Film Festivals and the Telluride Ski Resort where she catered parties of up to 20,000.  She has been featured in Gourmet, Food Arts, Chef, Restaurants & Institutions, Nation’s Restaurant News, National Culinary Review, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, Woman’s Day, Newsday, Martha Stewart, ABC News, CBS Morning Show and has been featured on many local and National radio and television shows.  Ann has shared her knowledge and experiences by giving seminars at the Smithsonian Institute, the National Restaurant Association Show and conferences hosted by The Culinary Institute of America, Chefs Collaborative, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, the International Association of Culinary Professionals and as a visiting Emens Professor at Ball State University.  She is a former Food and Society Policy Fellow, a national program supported by the Kellogg Foundation, was awarded an honorary doctorate from SUNY Cobleskill for her work on Sustainable Agriculture and honored by SLOW Food USA for her advocacy work on upgrading school lunch for children across America.

Ann is past President of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, a former member of the Executive Committee of Chefs Collaborative, past President of The American Culinary Federation of Central Vermont, a past member of The Alumni Committee of the Culinary Institute of America and has served as a member of the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Standards Board.