Steven Cohen, Director

The Research Program is led by Dr. Steven Cohen, 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 and the Director of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. He is a consultant, former policy analyst, and former member of the Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology for the U.S. EPA. He is a graduate of Franklin College of Indiana (1974) and the State University of New York at Buffalo (MA, 1977; PhD, 1979). Cohen is the author of several books, including Environmentally Sustainable Growth: A Pragmatic Approach (2023), The Sustainable City, 2nd ed. (2021),  Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy (2015), Understanding Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2014), and Sustainability Management (2011), and writes regularly on issues of sustainability management and environmental policy. You can sign up for his blog distribution list here. His upcoming book, Sustainability Metrics and Sustainability Management: The Role of Sustainability in Competent Management, is forthcoming publication in 2025. Dr. Cohen views the forthcoming research as a necessary next step in moving the needle towards more rigorous sustainability initiatives.