Cooley hails from Conway, Arkansas, where she attended Hendrix College. Her passion for the synergy of chemistry and biology was inspired by her undergraduate experiences, performing organic chemistry research at Hendrix during the academic year and neurobiology research in the summers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University, working with Professor Paul Wender on drug delivery approaches. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemical biology at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. Working in the labs of Professors Jeff Kelly and Luke Wiseman, she developed new strategies to ameliorate protein misfolding diseases such as light chain amyloidosis by the activation of stress-responsive signaling pathways. All of these experiences led her to Trinity, where she hopes to inspire generations of students to learn organic chemistry and chemical biology while researching solutions to critical problems in human health and disease. 

Education:

• Postdoc in Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute 

• Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Stanford University 

• B.A. in Chemistry, Hendrix College