November 10, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
A 2009 alumna of the Master of Health Administration program, Krystal Cooper found her way back to the Arnold School after nearly 10 years with large health care systems. Though her decade working in hospitals gave her valuable experience, the mother of two children under the age of five needed more balance in her life.
“I knew I wanted to stay in health, and I thought back to how much I loved my public health classes at USC,” Cooper says. “Around that time, Dr. Angela Liese happened to be looking for a study recruiter, and I joined her SEARCH Food Security Study in 2018.”
Originally from Marion, South Carolina, Cooper moved to the Midlands in 2003 to study experimental psychology at USC. After graduating, she immediately enrolled in the MHA program with the Arnold School’s Department of Health Services Policy and Management.
For the next few years, Cooper worked at Three Rivers Behavioral Health, a West Columbia-based center providing both inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance use disorder services. She then took a position with Prisma Health (then known as Palmetto Health) – gaining experience in business analysis and managing the hospital’s credentialing process.
The move to the Arnold School presented a new environment (research) and new opportunities. As the project manager for Liese’s studies, Cooper oversees the day-to-day management of the epidemiology professor’s research, from recruitment and screening to mailing study kits and collecting data. She also manages the staff and students on the research team.
“Recruitment quickly became one of my strengths, and I’ve loved connecting with participants and hearing their stories,” she says. “Over time, the management side of research has also let me use my strengths in planning, organizing, and working with a team, while challenging me to grow as a leader. Research lets me follow my passion for finding truths and answering the big questions.”
“Krystal is integral to the SEARCH-ancillary studies – keeping everything on track and the proverbial trains on time with her phenomenal project management skills,” says Liese. “She also brings tremendous value to the team with her deeply optimistic, solution-oriented attitude, which makes working with her such a pleasure.”
“What I like most is the chance to connect with people,” Cooper says. “Whether it’s participants sharing their experiences or working closely with my team. Those connections make the work meaningful, and they remind me why I chose public health in the first place.”
The Staff Spotlight Series is sponsored by the Arnold School's Office of Access and Collective Engagement.