Carmen Cooper-Oguz joined The Center in 2024 and brings over 35 years of experience as a clinician and healthcare executive. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Professionals (FACHE) and holds licenses in 15 states (many of which are in the Delta Region) to practice as a Physical Therapist. Carmen now serves as the Program Director for The Center’s Delta Region Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) Program. DRCHSD is the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s Program model for technical assistance to rural communities and providers.
Carmen joins The Center after having gained 20+ years of experience from a critical access hospital (CAH) that she helped convert from a PPS facility in 2004. With her expertise as Vice President of Service Line Development and Director of Rehabilitation, Carmen has also consulted with many other CAHs to help keep their doors from closing. Carmen is currently serving her second term as a Board Member for the American Physical Therapy Association where her platform for nomination and election centered on rural healthcare issues. Carmen has also served in numerous board and leadership capacities in civic and other healthcare organizations in the Delta Region and nationally. She is a HRSA grant reviewer and was appointed in 2019 to be an advisor for The Center for Medicare & Medicaid’s Hospital Outpatient Payment Panel.
Carmen was born and reared in the Mississippi Delta (Sunflower County) where she has lived her entire life. She and her husband, Cetin “Chet” Oguz, reside in Cleveland, MS, (Bolivar County) where they reared two sons: Cetin “Cooper” Oguz and Cruz Oguz. Having a project director/administrative mindset, Carmen enjoys working with legal teams as a medical expert witness, dabbling in commercial/residential building renovations and leasing and exploring investment opportunities in her spare time. Carmen loves animals and most any activity outdoors, since she’s indoors most of the time due to the nature of her work in healthcare. Her hobbies include playing pickleball, lawn and pool maintenance, and being a passenger princess while her husband navigates the family camper to the next, great rural community.