  We propose a protocol to dissipatively cool a room temperature mechanical
resonator using a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center ensemble. The spin ensemble is
coupled to the resonator through its orbitally-averaged excited state, which
has a spin-strain interaction that has not been previously characterized. We
experimentally demonstrate that the spin-strain coupling in the excited state
is $13.5\pm0.5$ times stronger than the ground state spin-strain coupling. We
then theoretically show that this interaction combined with a high-density spin
ensemble enables the cooling of a mechanical resonator from room temperature to
a fraction of its thermal phonon occupancy.
