Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson, the chaplain of Brown University, will retire at the end of this academic year, according to a recent announcement from University officials. The chaplain oversees the University’s multifaith initiatives and its Religious Life affiliates.
Cooper Nelson was appointed as chaplain in 1990 and was the first woman to serve in the role in the Ivy League. Throughout her tenure at Brown, she worked under five University presidents, beginning her time at Brown under President Vartan Gregorian.
“Vartan Gregorian’s invitation to join Brown as Chaplain introduced me to an enormously diverse intellectual and spiritual community whose courage, passions and soul became a privilege to hold and support,” Cooper Nelson wrote in an email to The Herald. “I was honored and humbled to hold the hearts and trust of generations of Brunonians with so many identities.”
Her successor has not yet been announced.
Before beginning her work at Brown, Cooper Nelson also held several leadership roles in higher education, including positions at Dartmouth, Vassar College and Mount Holyoke College. She was ordained to ministry in 1980.
Cooper Nelson used her role as director of the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life to develop a team of diverse religious life affiliates and multi-faith chaplains, including an associate Muslim chaplain.
She has also served on the faculty of the Warren Alpert Medical School, teaching courses connecting patient care to pastoral care. In her time at Brown, she has written portions of multiple published books, served on numerous boards for religious and nonprofit organizations and officiated several marriages.
In 2024, Cooper Nelson was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Recognition Award from the Association for Chaplaincy and Spiritual Life in Higher Education. The announcement recognizes Cooper Nelson for her role in shaping higher education through cultivating religious and spiritual life at institutions across the country.
“We offer Janet our deepest gratitude for her decades of service and wish her the very best as she begins this new chapter, knowing her legacy will remain with us for years to come,” Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey wrote in the announcement.
Sophia Wotman is a University news editor covering activism and affinity & identity. She is a junior from Long Island, New York concentrating in Political Science with a focus on women’s rights. She is a jazz trumpet player, and often performs on campus and around Providence.
