Steven A. Cohen

Steven A. Cohen (born 1953 in Orange, New Jersey) is an American academic who has taught public management and environmental policy at Columbia University since 1981.

He is the former executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and now serves as a senior advisor for the institute.

He is 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 in Environmental Science and Policy in the School of International and Public Affairs and the director of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management in the School of Professional Studies.

Cohen graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York, in 1970 and then attended Franklin College, in Franklin, Indiana, where he received his B.A. in political science in 1974.

He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in political science, with a concentration in environmental policy and public policy.

From 1976 to 1977, Cohen was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Environmental Policy, and from 1978 to 1979, he was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Public and Environmental Policy and Implementation.

Cohen served as a policy analyst in the EPA from 1977 to 1978 in the Office of Water and then in 1980–1981 in the Office of Hazardous Emergency Response and was responsible for developing and coordinating the implementation of public participation policy for the agency's hazardous waste clean-up Superfund Program.

He worked as a consultant to the agency from 1981 to 1991, 1994–1996, and 2005–2010.

In 1981 he began working at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs as an assistant professor of political science and became the director of the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Administration in 1985.

From 1985 to 1998, he was the director of Columbia's Graduate Program in Public Policy and Administration, and from 1998 to 2001 Cohen worked as the vice dean of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

In addition, Cohen was the associate dean for faculty and curriculum at SIPA from 1987 to 1998.

He served on the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator's National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (2002–2004).

He currently serves on the board of directors of Homes for the Homeless, faculty advisory committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University, and the admissions committee of the Lotos Club.

Cohen is the lead independent director of the board of directors of the Willdan Group, Inc. Cohen also sits on the judging committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation.

From 2002 to 2006, he directed education programs at The Earth Institute, and became executive director in 2006.

Cohen has acted as a consultant to the EPA's Superfund program, underground storage tank program and Region II management.

Along with William Eimicke he has undertaken management consulting and training for a number of government and nonprofit organizations.

Cohen often comments on regional and national environmental policies, from Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC to waste-to-energy options for urban areas, from the aftermath of 9/11 to global warming and nuclear energy.

He is frequently mentioned in publications such as the Daily News, The New York Times, USA Today, and Financial Times on regional politics.

Cohen has commented multiple times for both Fox News and NY1 television on the New York City mayoral race and the presidential campaigns.

He served on the advisory board of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment (2016-2022).

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 director of the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, 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.

Cohen is the author of The Sustainable City (2017, 2020), Understanding Environmental Policy (2006, 2014), Sustainability Management (2011), The Effective Public Manager (1988, now co-authored in its fifth edition), and the co-author of Management Fundamentals (2020), Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy (2015), The Responsible Contact Manager (2008), Strategic Planning in Environmental Regulation (2005), Tools for Innovators: Creative Strategies for Managing Public Sector Organizations (1998), and Total Quality Management in Government (1993).

He has written numerous articles on public management, sustainability management, and environmental policy.

Cohen also is a weekly contributor to The State of the Planet.

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