Joli Cooper

Joli Cooper is the founding executive director of GreenLight Fund Atlanta. With a deep passion for and commitment to the Atlanta community, she brings proven leadership in the nonprofit sector and extensive experience as a business executive. Prior to joining GreenLight, Joli served in a full time, volunteer capacity as the National President of Jack and Jill of America, the oldest African American family organization in the country which is dedicated to bettering the lives of all children. Her role spanned from managing day-to-day operations to defining and implementing strategic initiatives and partnerships. Her leadership propelled the organization to make significant advances in membership growth and development, innovative national programming, and strategic philanthropic giving.

Prior to her work at Jack and Jill of America, Joli was a founding partner at CSW Private Equity Partners, a private equity firm specializing in buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital financing in middle-market companies. She has also served as President and COO of Pasco Brands, once the largest private-label juice manufacturer in the United States. In addition, Joli has held various leadership positions at consumer products companies including Vitality Beverages, Tropicana Products/Seagram, and Nestle USA.

Over the course of her career, Joli has served on a host of nonprofit boards including Academy Prep of Tampa, The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Executive Board, United Way of Tampa Bay, Junior Achievement, The Children’s Home, Academy of the Holy Names, Pace Center for Girls, Inc., The Greater Tampa Wharton Club, and The Notre Dame Club of Tampa. Currently, she serves on the Board of Atlanta Wealth Building Initiatives, Westside Works, and the City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI).  

Joli holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where she was honored in 2002 as the Wharton Alumnae of the Year. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and participated in the Directors’ Education Institute at Duke University.

Joli is the proud parent of three young adults, Ashley (University of Notre Dame ‘11), Alana (Florida State University ’20), and Anthony (Harvard University ’22/Duke Fuqua School of Business ‘23).