Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Alicia T Cooper-Nelson joined the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in August 2006.   After completing basic training in January 2007, she attended her initial Officer Commissioning Course at the US Army Officer Candidate School, Ft Benning, Georgia, USA and the Military Police Basic Officer Leadership Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, USA which she completed in October 2007.   On returning to Jamaica, she was commissioned in the rank of Second Lieutenant and posted to the Support and Services Battalion.

She has held a number of military appointments including Administrative Officer at the Military Training Wing; Force Procurement Officer at the JDF Logistics Company, Support and Services Battalion; Staff Officer- Acquisitions and Disposals at HQ JDF; Officer Commanding, JDF Transport Company and Staff Officer – Logistics at HQ JDF. In April 2019, Major COOPER-NELSON was the first service woman to be appointed as the Detachment Commander at the Caribbean Infantry Training Centre in Newcastle.  She is currently the Acting Senior Staff Officer – Finance and Logistics at HQ JDF and the Force Gender Advisor.

Lt Col Cooper-Nelson has completed a number of professional courses throughout her career.   These include the Performance Management and Budgeting and  Data Analytics for Financial and Resources Management Courses at the Defense Resources Management Institute, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, USA (March 2021), Security Assistance Management Advanced International Logistics Course at the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management, Ohio, USA (2014); Logistics Captains Career Course, US Army Logistics University, Fort Lee Virginia USA (2013), Inter-Institutional Training Course on Combating the Illicit Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives, UNLIREC (2011) and the Caribbean Junior Command and Staff Course (2011). She also holds a MSc in Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the University of Salford (UK) and a Joint BSc in Hospitality and Tourism Management from the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology.

She was awarded the Medal of Honour for General Service in 2017.

She enjoys reading, travelling, discussing international and gender affairs and spending time with friends and family. She is married to Maj Joel Nelson and they have one son, Jordan.