Nancy Cooper has had a life long love of science investigations, the stars and the search for life beyond our planet. She got her start as a teen working at her local planetarium in upstate New York, where her enthusiasm led her to became director of her college planetarium developing astronomy outreach education programs for the community and beyond. She received a BA in biology with a special interest in astrobiology, that took her to extremophile research in the former NASA (Viking Mission era) scientist, Wolf Vishniac's laboratory, to research on extremophiles in the Antarctic at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A love and enthusiasm for bringing the excitement of scientific exploration and discovery to the masses brought her to teaching marine biology, environmental science and astronomy for all ages in the Puget Sound region for the past two decades. In the past decade Nancy has been a volunteer presenter for the University of Washington's Astronomy Department's Planetarium K-12 outreach education program and a volunteer in local schools connecting teachers and students with NASA's exciting missions to the stars.