By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
When Brent and Lisa Cooper met at the University Kentucky in 1990, he was an incoming committee chair on the student activities board, and she was leaving that position.
“I trained him in his first job,” Lisa Cooper said.
Their first date was homecoming in the fall of that year and four years later they were married.
The couple moved to Fort Thomas, where Lisa was raised, in 1996 (Brent is originally from Morehead) and have been making an impact in communities across Northern Kentucky ever since.
Lisa obtained a master’s degree in public administration from Northern Kentucky University and Brent started a career in information technology, working for large organizations.
In the late 90s, Brent recognized that the IT solutions that were available to large businesses were not being offered to small companies and wanted to help change that. Lisa, meanwhile, was eager to leave the private sector and pursue a career in public service.
She accepted an entry-level position with the Northern Kentucky Area Development District (NKADD) and Brent started C-Forward.
“We were at a point where we didn’t have kids yet, so I took a 30 percent pay cut and Brent started his own business,” Lisa Cooper said.
Brent correctly identified the value of providing state-of-the-art IT services to smaller businesses and C-Forward took off. The company experienced an average annual growth rate of 50 percent in its first three years.
“Starting your own business is like jumping off the high dive for the first time,” Brent Cooper said. “You have seen other people do it, but you don’t know if you can do it. Fortunately it has worked out well.”
Lisa was also experiencing career success at the NKADD.
She was promoted from public administration specialist to associate director for community development. In 2011, she was named the organization’s executive director, the title she holds today.
“When I got my masters from NKU, I didn’t even know that the Northern Kentucky Area Development District existed,” Lisa Cooper said. “Along the way, I was offered some opportunities to grow and develop when the timing was right. When this position came open, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and here I am today.”
The NKADD is one of 15 state-supported agencies that comprise a network of multi-county planning and development organizations. The agency provides services in an eight-county area that includes Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.
The organization provides a host of services for individuals in the counties it serves, including employment assistance, housing and food assistance and services for the elderly. It also provides assistance in the business community, with programs such as the Small Business Lending program. It assists local governments and nonprofits in areas such as staffing, human resources assistance and by providing GIS and demographic information.
“Unless you work daily in all of the cities and counties, I don’t think people realize how much regionalism there is in Northern Kentucky,” Lisa Cooper said. “We do pretty well with all of the different governments that we have and are actually a model for the state because of how much we do work together but we don’t always get the recognition.
The Coopers have two daughters, Sydney, a freshman in high school and Emma, who is in the fifth grade.
Like many Northern Kentucky couples, the Coopers are also actively involved in their community and the region.
Brent serves on the Kentucky State Chamber Board, the Strive Partnership Executive Committee, and the Northern Kentucky Education Council Board. He also serves on the Fort Thomas Planning Commission and is Co-Chair of the Greater Cincinnati Read On! Campaign.
“I chaired United Way on the Northern Kentucky side two years ago, and I led the Artswave effort in Northern Kentucky last year. Those were two big efforts,” Brent Cooper said. “But most of my efforts have been focused on early childhood education and trying to improve education in general. I’m chairing the education workforce council at the State of Kentucky Chamber of Commerce this year.”
Cooper believes an education system that prepares the next generation to become its workforce is the single biggest economic development tool a region can have.
“If we want to improve our region and our status as an economic driver for the state, education should be the focal point,” he said. “As I look at data across the country it all says early childhood gets the best bang for the buck and it drives everything else.”
The couple agrees that Northern Kentucky, as a region, does not get the recognition, or financial support from the state, it deserves.
“I always say if Cincinnati was Minneapolis, Northern Kentucky would be St. Paul. We are almost 20 percent of the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Region,” Brent said. “Lisa and I spend a lot of our time talking about regionalism and how to get more from Frankfort up here in Northern Kentucky and get recognition from Cincinnati. It’s a struggle on all of those fronts.”
Much of Lisa’s involvement is an extension of her role with the NKADD. She is involved with the Workforce Investment Board, the Economic Competitiveness Working Group and she represents the southeast region on the National Association of Development Organizations.
“I serve on the Impact Board, the Duke Urban Revitalization Advisory Council, and several other regional boards,” Lisa Cooper said. “On the state level, we have an association with all of the Area Development Directors and I serve on committees that focus on everything from workforce economic development, to agriculture and infrastructure.”
She is also involved with the Fort Thomas Education Foundation, and volunteers for fundraising activities at school and at church.
“It’s funny, everywhere I go people always want me to find grants for their organizations, so it’s kind of hard to separate everything,” she said.
While both hold high-profile positions in the region, people don’t always realize the Coopers are a married couple.
“A lot of people don’t make the connection and that’s intentional,” Brent Cooper said “When I was chair of the (Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce), there were things that we disagreed on or that we wouldn’t talk about because we had to keep our professional lives separate.”
Sometimes, even when the couple is involved in the same project, their schedules are so busy, they aren’t aware of it.
Brent was on the Board of Tri-Ed Board when L’Oreal announced a major expansion and didn’t even know Lisa was also going to be at the event.
“I found out the NKADD was a significant player in that and things like that happen where I don’t even realized she is involved,” he said. “It gave me an opportunity to see the impact she has had. Whether it’s getting money from FEMA during the floods in Falmouth or when the Boone County Police Department reorganized, those were things she played a role in and that’s fun for me to watch.”
Brent received the Boy Scouts’ Trailblazer award in 2013 and the Kenton County Library’s Mary Ann Mongan Award in 2012. He has also received the “Unity Award” from the NKY Chamber, and was named one of Northern Kentucky’s Leaders of Distinction.
Lisa was recently recognized by the Lane Report as one of Kentucky’s Top Women in Business: 2015.
It would seem that with all they have going on in their lives raising two daughters would be an almost insurmountable challenge, but they have a strong support system.
“A big part of why we can do what we do is our parents,” Lisa said.
The Coopers also have a mutual-support arrangement with other busy parents in their community.
“Generally, Tuesday and Thursday we drop of the kids at school and we also drop off the neighbor kids, then on Mondays and Wednesdays, the neighbors will drop off the kids at school and we alternate Friday,” Lisa said. “That’s the way it’s always been. It’s a team effort.”
Their daughters are also very involved in extracurricular activities, which sometimes works out to everyone’s advantage.
“We are very fortunate because they are in a great school system, so a lot of times picking them up isn’t leaving work early because they’ve got (after school activities),” Lisa said.
They also try to set aside some family time throughout the year, which can also be challenging.
“We’ve had to be creative, but we’ve done pretty well,” Brent said. “Sydney made the speech finals for the State of Kentucky this year, so we did Spring Break in Lexington.
In another era, the Coopers might have been described as a power couple, but both bristle at the term.
“We couldn’t do any of this without the help and support of a lot of people,” Brent Cooper said. “The power, if there is any, comes from them.”
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com