
Margie Keith Cooper
Co-Chair of NAREA (North America Reggio Emilia Alliance)
Margie Cooper is chief executive officer of Inspired Practices in Early Education, Inc., a not-for-profit organization founded in 1999 that creates and supports projects and initiatives to elevate and amplify early childhood education. She is a founding board member of both the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) and Fondazione Reggio Children – Centro Loris Malaguzzi in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Further, she is co-representative of NAREA within the Reggio Children International Network. Locally, she is founding director of Project Infinity, a school development investment in five not-for-profit early childhood community schools in Atlanta, GA, and Greenville, SC, that involves 225 educators, 1100 children, and 800 families annually since 2002. She is a life-long community volunteer, writer, and presenter, with previous appointments to commissions at both state and local levels.
Cooper’s elementary, early childhood, and university teaching career began in Ohio where she specialized in early childhood education, earning both a B.S. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and two M.Ed. degrees from Wright State University. Cooper resides in Georgia with her husband, Brian, and is the mother of two.