A member of nursing for 32 years, Ms. Gruber has also been instrumental in the growth of emergency medicine nursing at Cooper.

Ms. Gruber joined Cooper in 1989 as a PRN advancing to a staff RN. She then became the assistant clinical director and then clinical director of the Emergency Department (ED) during a time of expansion. She was instrumental in the development of the Clinical Decision Unit, which opened in 2011, where patients who present to the ED benefit from further observation resulting in either an admission or discharge within a 24-hour timeframe. Since 2012, she helped launch – and continues to oversee – nursing at Cooper Urgent Care Centers with its unique emergency medicine staffing model. As director of the Cooper Transfer Center, which accepts 5000 patient transfers a year from area hospitals, she works closely with Cooper Air and Ground Transport to insure patient admission to Cooper’s specialty care programs.

Ms. Gruber is a retired captain of the United States Navy Corps. She was awarded the Military Employee of the Year award at Cooper in 2020 for her extraordinary nursing leadership during the pandemic, participation in the COVID-19 Regional Command Center, and in working with the team in establishing the field base to care for COVID-19 patients. She also has led numerous initiatives aimed at improving health care access, health screenings, and COVID-19 testing sites. She is also an active member of the New Jersey Hospital Association Organization of Nurse Leaders.

Ms. Gruber received her bachelor of science nursing degree from Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. She is a certified nurse executive as well as a certified emergency nurse. She is also a Lean Six Sigma Yellow belt.