Anna E. Cooper (July 22, 1897 – 1988) was a Liberian educator, she was the first female dean of the University of Liberia.

She went to the United States in 1914, and attended Central Alabama Institute, Morgan State College,[3] and finally Howard University, where she played basketball, was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and earned a bachelor's degree in 1921.

[4] She returned to the United States in 1931, earning a master's degree at Teachers College, Columbia University.

[8][12] In 1978, she was honored by President William Tolbert, installed as a Knight Official in the Humane Order of African Redemption.

[5] Cooper's son, James T. Phillips Jr., was a soil scientist and cabinet minister, executed during a military coup in 1980.