Family is more than who we are related to. It is knowing the stories that connect us.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Domonique Cooper has built a life around people, family, children, community, and the belief that meaningful connections can change what becomes possible for someone.
She has a natural gift for bringing people together. Over the years, that gift has taken her into classrooms, nonprofit organizations, boardrooms, community programs, mentoring relationships, advocacy work, and countless conversations where somebody needed a person willing to listen, connect the right people, and help move something forward. It is easy to understand why she became known as a Community Connector.
Her professional journey has crossed the federal government, nonprofit leadership, education, consulting, volunteer engagement, human services, and child advocacy. But beneath the titles and organizations is a consistent thread: Domonique has always been drawn toward work that strengthens children, families, and communities.
In 2015, her life changed when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The diagnosis brought an unexpected end to her career with the Social Security Administration, but it did not bring an end to her contribution. Domonique redirected her energy into advocacy, community leadership, education, writing, mentoring, and service. Her story became one of adaptation, perseverance, faith, and finding another way forward when life changed the original plan.
She has served as a court-sworn CASA advocate, mentored students throughout Gwinnett County, participated in school councils and educational committees, supported community organizations, and worked to create opportunities for children and families. Her civic involvement has stretched across schools, nonprofits, service organizations, volunteer initiatives, and community programs throughout Gwinnett County and beyond.
Domonique is also an author who has turned her experiences and observations into books for parents, young people, children, and community leaders. Her work includes Witty Words of Wisdom for Moms, Community Connector: 8 Strategies for Effective Engagement and Collaboration, My Animal Alphabet Appetite, and the co-authored What If, I Am: The 4 Stages in Life for Teens. Writing became another way for her to teach, encourage, and leave something useful behind.
Education has remained an important part of her own journey. She earned a bachelor's degree in Criminology and Social Deviance with a minor in Forensic Psychology from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, followed by a master's degree in Human Services with a specialization in Social and Community Services. Her continued learning reflects something deeply characteristic of Domonique: she is rarely finished growing.
Yet the fullest picture of Domonique cannot be told through degrees, boards, awards, or professional accomplishments alone.
She is a wife, mother, mentor, traveler, conversationalist, advocate, and fierce believer in family. She loves creating experiences with the people closest to her, whether that means crossing the country together, encouraging a young person, supporting someone through a difficult season, or bringing relatives and friends together around memories that will be talked about years later.
Domonique is also a lover of family history. She believes that stories, traditions, lessons, photographs, and memories should be passed from one generation to the next rather than disappearing with time. To her, family members should know more than one another's names. They should know the stories behind those names, the people who came before them, the experiences that shaped their relatives, and the connections that make them part of something larger than themselves.
That belief is part of what makes the Cooper-Ackwood Family Archive so meaningful. Preserving family history is not simply about looking backward. For Domonique, it is about giving future generations something they can recognize as their own, something that helps them understand where they come from and gives them stories worth passing forward.
Domonique believes deeply in perseverance and prayer. Her life reflects both.
She has experienced unexpected turns, reinvented herself more than once, and continued building a life rooted in service, family, faith, curiosity, connection, and remembrance.
For the Cooper-Ackwood Family Archive, Domonique is more than one of its Founding Stewards.
She is one of the people whose life, love of family, and belief in preserving what came before helped give the archive a reason to exist.