The ASPEN Board of Directors has named M. Petrea Cober, PharmD, MEd, BCNSP, BCPPS, FASPEN, as ASPEN Champion for 2027. She will be recognized for her significant and sustained contributions to ASPEN and its mission on Saturday, February 13, at the ASPEN 2027 Nutrition Science & Practice Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
A professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), Dr. Cober also serves as the College of Pharmacy’s director of workforce development and professional development.
“Dr. Cober is a driving force in expanding and improving neonatal nutrition care,” said ASPEN President Sharon Y. Irving, PhD, RN, CRNP, FCCM, FNAP, FAAN, FASPEN. “As we care for patients with increasingly complex conditions, the nutrition expertise of clinical pharmacists like Dr. Cober is essential. Highly respected in the pharmacy community, she brings invaluable knowledge to patient care, and we are grateful for her ongoing commitment to ASPEN. Her dedication to patients, interprofessional and multidisciplinary collaborations, and educating and mentoring future practitioners exemplifies what it means to be a ‘team player.’ Through scholarship, teaching, leadership, and service, Dr. Cober shares practical knowledge to help clinicians deliver safe, effective, evidence-based nutrition support.”
ASPEN Leadership and Contributions to Nutrition Support
An ASPEN member since 2006, Dr. Cober has served on an ever-growing list of committees and task forces, including chairing the Parenteral Nutrition Committee, the ASPEN24 Planning Committee, the Pharmacy Practice Section, and the Clinical Practice Committee.
Her contributions to nutrition support practice include coauthoring ASPEN’s guidelines for parenteral nutrition in preterm infants and consensus recommendations for refeeding syndrome. She was first author of “ASPEN Lipid Injectable Emulsion (ILE) Safety Recommendations Part 2: Neonate and Pediatric Considerations.” She also coauthored ASPEN publications addressing shortages of PN components and the 2026 “Parenteral Nutrition Practice in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Survey with Gap Analysis.”
Dr. Cober was editor of the second edition of the ASPEN Parenteral Nutrition Workbook and played an instrumental role in developing ASPEN’s recently published Clinical Considerations for Neonatal Starter Parenteral Nutrition. She also shares her expertise through ASPEN’s Parenteral Nutrition Order Writing Course, Nutrition Support Fundamentals Course, and conference and webinar programs.
ASPEN named Dr. Cober a Fellow in 2019 and recognized her with the Stanley Serlick Award in 2021 and the Distinguished Nutrition Support Pharmacy Service Award in 2024.
Education and Clinical Career
She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy with highest honors from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and a Master of Education in Health Professions Education from Cleveland State University/Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She completed a pharmacy practice residency at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and a second-year specialty residency in pediatrics at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
Her mentor at Michigan was the late pediatric surgeon Daniel H. Teitelbaum, MD, PhD, FASPEN, who served as ASPEN’s 38th president and sparked her work in parenteral nutrition and service to the association.
Dr. Cober remained at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital as a clinical pharmacist in pediatric surgery and the intestinal failure program from 2005 to 2010. She also served as a clinical assistant professor in pediatric pharmacotherapy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy from 2007 to 2010. She subsequently spent 13 years as a neonatal intensive care unit clinical pharmacy specialist at Akron Children’s Hospital, while also serving on NEOMED’s faculty.
Professional Leadership and Honors
Beyond ASPEN, Dr. Cober served as president of the Pediatric Pharmacy Association in 2024–2025 and has chaired several American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy committees. Her work has been recognized with the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Pediatrics PRN Outstanding Practitioner Award and seven teaching and leadership awards from NEOMED.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Cober at the ASPEN 2027 Nutrition Science & Practice Conference in Chicago.