Michael S. Cookson, MD,FACS,MMHC

About Michael Cookson

Michael S. Cookson, MD, MMHC, FACS is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology and the Donald D. Albers Chair of Urology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma and completed his residency in Urology at University of Texas, San Antonio. He went on to complete a fellowship in Urologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky. He then spent 15 years on the faculty at Vanderbilt University. In 2013, he returned to the University of Oklahoma as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology, developing the Prostate and Urologic Cancer Team at the Stephenson Cancer Center. In 2020, he was named the Chief Surgical Officer for OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center. In 2025, he was named OU Health’s inaugural Associate Chief Physician Executive and Deputy Director of Clinical Operations at the Stephenson Cancer Center.

Focusing on urologic cancer education, clinical research, and patient care, he has helped establish OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center’s Prostate and Urologic Cancer Service line as one of the best in the nation. He has led efforts in integration of screening and early detection for prostate cancer, clinical pathways, enhanced guidelines, and minimally invasive surgical treatments for patients with urologic cancers. Nationally, he has improved education as a member of the AUA/ABU Examination Committee and the Society for Urologic Oncology, co-developing the AUA/SUO Oncology Knowledge Assessment Examination (OKAT).

He is currently on the Editorial Board of the AUA Update Series and co-editor of the Urology Times. He has served as Chairman of the AUA’s CPRC Guidelines Panel and Vice Chairman of the AUA-SUO Advanced Prostate Cancer Guidelines Panel. He served as President of the Society of Urologic Oncology and is a Past President of the South-Central Section of the AUA. He is an active member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and is a member of the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons. In 2025, he was elected as a Trustee to the American Board of Urology.

An accomplished researcher and lecturer, he is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed journal publications and 35 textbook chapters and has an H-index of 89. He has been nationally and internationally recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of urologic oncology. He has been married to Kimberly Kennedy Cookson for 35 years. They have three children, all Sooners, including Caroline (OU BS in Nursing, 2017, DNP FNP 2026), Connor (OU BA in Mathematics, 2021) and Cooper (OU BS in Aviation, 2027).

• Bladder cancer
• Blue light cystoscopy for bladder cancer detection
• Cryotherapy
• Immunotherapy
• HIFU
• MRI-guided fusion biopsies for prostate cancer detection
• Prostate cancer
• Renal cancer
• Robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy
• Robotic and minimally invasive surgeries
• Testicular cancer
• Urinary diversion