Senior Education Researcher, SRI Education
Dan Cohen, PhD, MPH, focuses on preventing mental illness, suicide and violence in children and adolescents, primarily through school-based approaches. His work involves developing, refining and assessing prevention and intervention programs, as well as evaluating contextual factors in schools that impact student mental health such as structural and interpersonal racism. He has expertise in mental health disparities, behavioral assessment and quantitative analysis.
At SRI, Cohen has applied his expertise in violence prevention and mental health disparities on a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)-funded project focused on developing and evaluating schoolwide and targeted approaches to reducing violence and racial discrimination in middle schools. He is also conducting qualitative research for a Student Behavioral Health Incentive Program Needs Assessment for a large California county office of education. In addition, Cohen is a researcher on an Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded effectiveness replication study of the BEST in CLASS intervention for young children who are at risk for delays in social or emotional development.
Before joining SRI, Cohen was an assistant professor of school psychology at the University of Alabama and co-director of the Center for Interconnected Behavioral and Mental Health Systems. He has received funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Alabama Department of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. His recent publications appear in the peer-reviewed journals Child Development, Behavioral Disorders, Psychology in the Schools, Prevention Science, School Mental Health, School Psychology Review and School Psychology. Cohen received his PhD from the APA-accredited doctoral program in school psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He earned his MPH from Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics. Cohen also holds a BA in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Key projects
- Effectiveness Replication of the BEST in CLASS Intervention for Young Children at High Risk for Delays in Social or Emotional Development
- Reducing Youth Violence and Racism/Discrimination: The Efficacy of Comprehensive Prevention Strategies (CPS)
Selected publications
- Applying an ecosocial framework to address racial disparities in suicide risk among black youth*
- In-School and Out-of-School Suspension: Behavioral and Psychological Outcomes in a Predominately Black Sample of Middle School Students*
- Evaluating School-Level Student Outcomes of a Systematic Tier 2 Framework*
- Not Separate but Not Equal: Improving Equity in Discipline in Racially and Ethnically Diverse School Settings*
- Does Child Likeability Mediate the Link Between Academic Competence and Depressive Symptoms in Early Elementary School?*
- A comparison of measures to screen for social, emotional, and behavioral risk*
