Steven Cohen

Dr. Steven Cohen is the Senior Vice Dean of Columbia’s School of Professional Studies and a Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is also the Director of the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, the Director of the Masters of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, and the Director of the Earth Institute’s Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn (1970), Franklin College of Indiana (1974), and the State University of New York at Buffalo (M.A., 1977; Ph.D., 1979). From 1976-77, Cohen was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Environmental Policy, and from 1978-79, he was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Public and Environmental Policy and Implementation. Dr. Cohen was the Executive Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2006-2018. He is a former policy analyst and consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Cohen has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Board of the Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs, the Executive Committee and Committee on Accreditation and Peer Review of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Homes for the Homeless, the Board of Directors of the Willdan Group, Inc., the Advisory Board of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, the Steering Committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University and is the Chair of the Lotos Club Science and Technology Committee. Dr. Cohen also sits on the Judging Committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation. Dr. Cohen is the co-author of The Sustainable City (2017, 2020), Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy (2015), The Responsible Contract Manager(2008), Strategic Planning in Environmental Regulation (2005), The Effective Public Manager 3rd and 4th editions (2002, 2008), Tools for Innovators: Creative Strategies for Managing Public Sector Organizations(1998), The New Effective Public Manager(1995), Total Quality Management in Government (1993), and the author of Understanding Environmental Policy (2nd Edition)(2006, 2014), Sustainability Management (2011), and The Effective Public Manager (1988), Management Fundamentals (2020) and numerous articles on public management innovation, public ethics, sustainability management, politics, and environmental management. Dr. Cohen also is a weekly contributor to The Huffington Post. Dr. Cohen has taught courses in public management, policy analysis, environmental policy, management innovation, and sustainability management. In 1982, Cohen developed Columbia’s Capstone Workshops in Applied Public Management and Applied Policy Analysis and directed them until 2001, bringing practical professional education into the center of Columbia’s Public Administration curriculum. He has conducted professional training seminars in total quality management, strategic planning, project management, and management innovation. Cohen was born in Orange, New Jersey, raised in Brooklyn, New York, and now resides in New York City. He and his wife, Donna Fishman, have two wonderful daughters, Gabriella and Ariel.