Steven Cohen
Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs, SIPA; Director, MPA in Environmental Science and Policy, SIPA; Director, MS in Sustainability Management, SPS; Director, Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management, Climate School
Personal Details
Focus areas: Public management innovation, public ethics, sustainability management, politics, environmental management
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 Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at Columbia University's Climate School.
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. 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 is a former member of the Advisory Board of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment and the former Chair of the Lotos Club Science and Technology Committee. He formerly served on the Steering Committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University and formerly sat on the Judging Committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Homes for the Homeless, the Board of Directors of the Willdan Group, Inc., and the Admissions Committee of 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. His most recent book, co-authored with William Eimicke and Dong Guo, Sustainability Metrics and Sustainability Management: The Role of Sustainability in Competent Management is forthcoming publication by Columbia University Press in 2025. He writes a weekly piece for the School of Professional Studies’ blog, Tomorrow’s Minds at Work; join his blog distribution list here.
Education
- PhD, SUNY Buffalo
- MA, SUNY Buffalo
- BA, Franklin College of Indiana
Affiliations
- Board of Directors, Homes for the Homeless
- Board of Directors, Willdan Group, Inc.
- Admissions Committee, The Lotos Club
Honors and Awards
- 2024 Honoree of Crain’s New York Business' Notable Leaders in Sustainability
- Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Environmental Policy
- Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Public and Environmental Policy and Implementation
Research And Publications
In The Media
"In a bold move backward," writes Steven Cohen, Japan may build 22 new coal-fired power plants. It's one sign, he says, of "a global energy system moving in every direction at once."
While the necessity of climate adaptation is increasingly obvious the urgency felt has receded write Steve Cohen.
In an era of deep mistrust of large institutions and a still dominant anti-government ideology, addressing the issue of climate change presents difficult political challenges write Steve Cohen
Government can also promote technology that is in the public interest through its purchasing power, and by funding scientific research in areas of technology that promotes civic values and the public interest says Steve Cohen
The key issue for universities like the one I work at in “speaking truth to power” is to engage in the process of public agenda setting and in selling new knowledge to decision-makers. Universities have unique resources for engaging in this activity write Steve Cohen.