Dr. Sharon Cooper is a Developmental and Forensic Pediatrician who cares for children and
select adults with different abilities, as well as those who have been victims of maltreatment. Dr.
Cooper retired from the United States Army with the rank of Colonel and holds adjunct faculty
positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the
Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences at Bethesda, Maryland. She has provided
numerous lectures to medical, nursing, mental health, judicial, social science and investigative
agencies, including the National Judicial College, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
Australian Federal Police, and INTERPOL. Her primary areas of expertise include all areas of
child maltreatment, child torture and child sexual exploitation.

Dr. Cooper has published numerous chapters on the subject of child sexual exploitation and is
the lead editor of one of the most comprehensive texts in the U.S. on this subject. She works
with victims and families of children who have been the prey of all types of online and offline
exploitation. She is a Board member and consultant to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children and for more than a decade has taught several thousand special victim unit
and vice investigators about victim vulnerability, health impact and diverse forms of exploitation
in sex trafficking.

Dr. Cooper has served as an expert witness in several hundred cases of child maltreatment, and
numerous cases within the past several years on behalf of sex trafficking victims. Dr. Cooper
served as a Task Force Member for the U.S. Attorney General on Defending Childhood and
Children Exposed to Violence, and was an invited speaker to the White House Summit on The
United State of Women. She recently presented at the World Congress on Child Dignity in the
Digital World, sponsored by the Vatican. She has provided testimony before the U.S. Congress,
the Italian Senate, the Russian Parliament (Duma), and the Ottawa House of Commons on child
sexual exploitation.

In 2011, Dr. Cooper was selected by Newsweek magazine as one of the 150 women who shake
the world. She continues to serve through an International Working Group on the victim impact
for survivors of child sexual abuse imagery, sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Child
Protection. She recently produced Not Just Pictures, the first American documentary to provide
insight into the ongoing extraordinary impact of the victimization of children whose abusive
images are distributed in cyberspace.

 

Physician Accreditation Statement:

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and the International Association of Forensic Nurses.  Postgraduate Institute for Medicine is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

  

Physician Continuing Medical Education:

The Postgraduate Institute for Medicine designates this live activity for 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Accreditation Statement:

The International Association of Forensic Nurses is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Nursing Credit Designation:

The International Association of Forensic Nurses designates this live activity for 1.5 Nursing CE Credits.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: 

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) requires instructors, planners, managers and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this activity to disclose any real or apparent conflict of interest (COI) they may have as related to the content of this activity. All identified COI are thoroughly vetted and resolved according to PIM policy.  PIM is committed to providing its learners with high quality CME activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.