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Tori Cooper
Tori Cooper
01:27

Tori Cooper

Human Rights Campaign

Atlanta, GA USA

"I advocate for everybody. I want everybody to win."

Career Roadmap

Tori's work combines: Politics, Non-Profit Organizations, and Helping People

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Day In The Life

Director of Community Engagement

I focus on economic empowerment, capacity building programs, and public safety for the transgender community.

Skills & Education

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Human Services

Life & Career Milestones

I've taken a lot of twists and turns

  • 1.

    I always knew I wasn’t like other little girls or boys.

  • 2.

    I really got to start exploring my gender identity and sexuality when I left home for college—I had a group of friends and we would all go out and party together as a community.

  • 3.

    When I started taking hormonal therapies, I didn’t feel the need to share that with anyone because it was a very personal journey for me and I didn’t think others would understand.

  • 4.

    A few years later, HIV and AIDS started ravaging my community.

  • 5.

    I kept going out and living my best life fully expecting to be taken down by HIV or HIV stigma, yet I wasn’t.

  • 6.

    In my forties, as a Black trans woman, I felt called to work to fight for my community as a health and equity consultant advocating for trans people, Black people, and people living with HIV.

  • 7.

    I currently work as the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative.

Defining Moments

Experiences and challenges that shaped me

Click to expand

  • I've always known I was different than other little girls or boys. As a Black trans woman, I've faced a lot of stigma and discrimination. I've been working for decades as an advocate for the health, safety, and equity of my community.

  • As a Black trans woman, reporting on the disproportionate deaths of Black trans women all the time is traumatic. If I didn't know that woman, someone I know did. I have to keep fighting and doing the work because the alternative is much worse.