Faith Akovi Cooper

Faith Akovi Cooper is an influential refugee advocate and leader with a professional background in humanitarian assistance, global health, and international development sectors spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. 

She currently serves as Regional Director, US Southern Border Region in the IRC’s Resettlement, Asylum, and Integration (RAI) Unit. In this role she supports nine offices to ensure refugees acquire quality services to resettle.

Faith is a former refugee herself from Liberia.  She and her family escaped the brutal Liberian war and lived on two refugee camps before resettling in the U.S. She consistently advocates for women, children, and vulnerable populations, especially refugees. 

She was recently appointed to the United States Refugee Advisory Board (USRAB) where she will contribute her lived expertise to create better and more equitable solutions for refugees and other forcibly displaced people.

Prior to joining RAI, Faith served as IRC’s country director in Liberia, where she oversaw all country operations, including the implementation of the USAID 36M Community Health Systems strengthening project. Other senior roles she has held include Africare’s Country Director, Ghana, and Liberia; Regional Advisor, West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative (WADPI) Ebola Preparedness Project for ECOWAS at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana. She also served as Program Manager for the U.S government funded humanitarian assistance portfolio covering Pandemic Response and disaster preparedness programs at the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine in Maryland, USA.

Faith holds a Master of Public Administration in Health Policy from George Mason University and dual B.A degrees in foreign languages and Criminal Justice from Radford University. She believes “to whom much is given, much is expected, thus her lifelong commitment to advocating for refugees.