Zara Cooper, MD, MSC

Dr. Zara Cooper is an acute care surgeon, trauma surgeon and surgical intensivist at Mass General Brigham, where she serves as Executive Vice Chair of Surgery, Kessler Director for the Center for Surgery and Public Health and founding director of the Center for Geriatric Surgery. She is co-director of the West Health Accelerator at MGB overseeing implementation and evaluation of clinical processes to improve care for older adults across 9 MGB hospitals. She is the inaugural Michele and Howard Kessler Distinguished Chair in Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Cooper is an internationally recognized federally funded health services researcher, with a focus on the intersection of surgery, geriatrics, and palliative care. She has authored over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts and lectures internationally on topics related to geriatric surgery, surgical palliative care, and equity in surgery and surgical care.

Dr. Cooper completed her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University and her graduate and medical degree at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. She completed her general surgery internship, residency and surgical critical care fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She completed a trauma surgery fellowship at Harborview Medical Center at the University of Washington. She also completed a palliative medicine fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.