Grace Sharples Cooke

Grace Sharples Cooke is the director of the Office of the President at the Science History Institute. She works with president and CEO David Cole to deepen the Institute’s individual and institutional relationships. From her first six years in New York City as a fashion editor at Glamour magazine, through 14 years overseas on U.S. diplomatic postings in Shanghai, Tokyo, Berlin, and Taipei, followed by U.S. nonprofit work from 2002 on, Grace brings a diversity of experience to her work at the Institute.

Grace is a curator of people and cross-cultural communicator interested in motivating diverse groups of people to engage with the history of science and the Institute’s free museum, library, and Distillations digital content platform. She is an advancement professional with four decades of experience in the fields of fundraising, programming, events, and communications for national, social service, educational, and religious institutions.

In her spare time, Grace is a science enthusiast, environmentalist, and a lifelong reader of Science News. She supports a land stewardship project involving wetland, meadow, and new growth forest ecosystems at the confluence of Darby and Ithan creeks. A graduate of Cornell University, Grace serves on the boards of the William Penn Charter School and the Philadelphia Committee on Foreign Relations. She is a former trustee of the Taipei American School and the John F. Kennedy German-American School in Berlin.

Grace is a member of the Science History Institute’s Leadership Team.