About Ivory Cooper
Navy Veteran. FAA District Manager. Leadership Coach.
From the Flight Line to the Front Office
Ivory L. Cooper Sr. served 33 years in federal service — beginning with the United States Navy in 1992 and retiring from the Federal Aviation Administration in December 2025, where he rose from electronics technician to District Manager overseeing 300+ employees across three states. He’s led teams through reorganizations, workforce crises, performance challenges, and everything in between. He knows what it’s like to be the person everyone comes to — and how isolating that can be when you don’t have the right tools. Applied Leadership HQ exists because Ivory couldn’t find the leadership development he actually needed when he was coming up. So he built it. His approach is direct, practical, and built for the real conditions of government and federal leadership — not the polished corporate playbook.
Harvard Advanced Negotiation Skills
Harvard University — Division of Continuing Education
Completed prior to leading FAA Tech Ops labor negotiations, Washington D.C.
Federal Executive Institute — Leadership for a Democratic Society
Federal Executive Institute (FEI) — U.S. Office of Personnel Management | Charlottesville, Virginia | 2019
The federal government’s most elite leadership development institution — a 4-week residential immersion reserved for career civil servants on the path to senior executive leadership. Ivory was selected by the FAA to attend. FEI was closed by the federal government in 2025.
Selected by the FAA
4-Week
Residential
Immersion
Charlottesville, Virginia
University of Virginia Campus
What Senior Leaders Say
“I watched Ivory lead from the frontline all the way to the District Manager level. What set him apart was never the title — it was how he led the people around him. He had a rare ability to move teams through resistance and tension while keeping the mission front and center. The leaders who work with him will learn what most managers never figure out on their own.”
Mary Sherer
Retired Director, FAA Logistics Center & Eastern Service Area Director, Federal Aviation Administration
Ivory’s District Manager and Director during his FAA career
How Ivory Works
Direct
No theory overload. No corporate buzzwords. Straight talk about real challenges.
Practical
Every session, every resource, every framework is built to be used the next day.
Veteran-Built
33 years in federal service means the advice is battle-tested, not borrowed from a textbook.
When your boss is ready to fire you for something an employee did 4 levels below you — Keep Leading.
When your peers feel threatened by you — Keep Leading.
When your direct reports are angry about a decision — Keep Leading.
When home is upside down — Keep Leading.
When you doubt yourself — Keep Leading.
Because all the problems above are temporary. Leadership is not.
Keep Leading.