PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Steve Cohen
He is a Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
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 Master 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 1970 graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York. Cohen received his B.A. in Political Science from Franklin College of Indiana (1974), and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the State University of New York in Buffalo (1977; 1979). In 1976-77, Cohen was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Environmental Policy; in 1978-79, he was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Public and Environmental Policy and Implementation.
Dr. Cohen is the former Executive Director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. 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, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology, Advisory Board of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, and the Steering Committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Cohen formally served on the Judging Committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation and was the Chair of the Lotos Club’s Science and Technology Committee. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Homes for the Homeless, the Board of Directors of the Willdan Group, Inc., and as a member of the Admissions Committee for the Lotos Club.
Dr. Cohen is the co-author of The Sustainable City (2021), Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy (2015), The Responsible Contract Manager (2008), The Effective Public Manager 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions (1995, 2002, 2008, 2013), Strategic Planning in Environmental Regulation (2005), Tools for Innovators: Creative Strategies for Managing Public Sector Organizations (1998), and Total Quality Management in Government (1993), and the author of Environmentally Sustainable Growth: A Pragmatic Approach (2023), Management Fundamentals (2020), The Sustainable City (2017), Understanding Environmental Policy (2nd Edition) (2006, 2014), Sustainability Management (2011), The Effective Public Manager (1988), and numerous articles on public management innovation, public ethics, sustainability management, politics and environmental management. Dr. Cohen was a weekly contributor to The Huffington Post from 2009 to 2018.
He writes a weekly piece for the School of Professional Studies' blog, Tomorrow's Minds at Work; join his blog distribution list here.