Justin Cohen is founder and lead organizer of Dads for All. He is a dad, author, political activist, and public policy expert working at the intersections of art, activism, community organizing, and social change. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Bklyner, Education Week, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Education Next, Guernica, CityLimits, Bright Magazine, HuffPost, and elsewhere. His first book – Change Agents: Transforming Schools from the Ground Up - was a best-selling new title in the education category on its release in 2022.
Before leading Dads for All, Justin founded and led Dads for Kamala. In 2016 Justin co-founded Wayfinder Foundation, to provide micro-grants to activists in historically marginalized communities. Before that, he served as president of education nonprofit Mass Insight Education, as chief strategy officer of Cambiar Education, and as senior advisor to the chancellor at the DC Public Schools. His ghostwriting consultancy focuses on resource generation, political strategy, and communications infrastructure for movement building, relative to criminal justice reform, anti-war activism, and the movement for Black Lives. In 2021, he founded Neighbors Reimagining Public Safety, growing out of his insurgent bid for the New York State Assembly. After his violent arrest as a protest leader in 2020, his strategic role as a plaintiff in a suite of lawsuits helped change “use of force” and speech suppression policies at the NYPD, resulting in historic civil penalties. His activism and community organizing spans NYC grassroots organizations, including Friends of Abolitionist Place and The Abolitionist Heritage Center of Downtown Brooklyn, where he serves as a founding trustee. Justin has been a writer in residence at the Carey Institute for the Global Good, a fellow of the Broad Academy, an Organizer in Residence at Civic Hall, and a founder of Racial Justice BK. He served on the education policy committee for then-Senator Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and holds a B.A. in cognitive science from Yale.
Written things …
New York Daily News op-ed, with Moms First Founder Reshma Saujani, on universal childcare
From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood essay about the nonprofit sector, excerpted in the Stanford Social Innovation Review
CityLimits Op-Ed, with New Pride Agenda Executive Director Kei Williams, on jails
The New York Times “The Lives They Loved” Tribute to Sylvia Cohen (AKA my Bubby)
Bklyner article on Brooklyn abolitionist history and present
Patch piece on violent policing
Kings County Politics op-ed on campaigning during the pandemic
Bright long-form on the blurry lines between micro- and home-schooling
Education Next article on new, tiny schools
This one blog post I wrote about racist police violence years ago that a surprising number of people read
Another old blog post about how to talk about race over the holidays that also became a radio piece in Canada somehow
Stanford Social Innovation Review article about school improvement
HuffPost contributor pieces, from when that was a thing
Press, interviews, podcasts…
2024: High Tech High Unboxed podcast appearance
2024: New England Public Media portrait, podcast, and profile from the 2024 DNC
2024: NPR talks about Dads for Kamala
2023: The Harvard Graduate School of Education Ed-Cast talks to Justin
2023: The Ethical Schools podcast talks to Justin
2023: Think of the Children podcast talks to Justin
2022: The 74 Million interview about education policy
2021: The Indypendent talks about the campaign to save 227 Abolitionist Place
2020: Jade + XD podcast with Justin, talking about his candidacy for NY State Assembly
2020: Bklyner highlights Justin’s run for New York State Assembly
2020: BKReader talks about Justin’s “for all” platform
2020: Guernica magazine shares Justin’s first person account of violent police response to protest movements
2019: Brooklyn Eagle talks to Justin about abolition activism
2019: Brooklyn Paper covers No New Jails NYC
2018: Justin in The New York Times talking about school improvement
2018: Slate profiles Politicize My Death
2015-2017: The Beard Brothers Dope Show, co-host
2015: Peabody Journal of Education article on school improvement
2015: Rock the Schools podcast guest appearance
2012: City Year report on national service (Justin wrote the Foreword)
2012: Norwich Bulletin looks at school improvement
2011: Center for American Progress report on school improvement
2011: Christian Science Monitor piece on school improvement
2010: Progressive Policy Institute convening on school improvement
2010: The New York Times covers the costs of school improvement
2008: C-SPAN and US News & World Report program on the future of secondary education
Exhibitions & Activism
2019: Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space exhibition - No Jew Jails: The Art & Design of a Movement (featuring Justin’s photography)
2021: New York magazine celebrates our saving The Abolitionist Heritage Center in the “Approval Matrix”
Contact
You can reach Justin at justin at dadsforall dot com