David K. Cohen

David K. Cohen (August 16, 1934 – September 23, 2020) was an American educational theorist.

Between 1964 and 1966, Cohen was a consultant to the NAACP.[1][2] He then served as director of the Race and Education Project, an initiative of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.[2][1] Cohen joined the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1968 as a lecturer.[3] The next year, he was named an associate professor, and promoted to full professor in 1971.[3] Cohen retired from Harvard University in 1986.[3] During his time at Harvard, Cohen served concurrently as president of the Huron Institute.[1][2] He taught at Michigan State University between 1986 and 1993, as the John Hannah Chair within the Department of Education.[2] Cohen subsequently moved to the University of Michigan, where he was named the John Dewey Collegiate Professor of Education and jointly held a professorship in public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.[2] Cohen was a member of the first board of directors convened by the Albert Shanker Institute, and remained in that position for twenty years.[2] He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013.[4]