NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Robert H. Cohen

Robert H. Cohen possess a Juris Doctorate degree from New York Law School and a Masters in Social Work from Boston University School of Social Work His undergraduate degree is from City College of New York He is a member of the New York State and District of Columbia Bar Associations and was admitted to the United States Supreme Court in 1988. Mr. Cohen is a licensed certified social worker in the State of Maryland.

Before joining the NASW staff, Mr. Cohen served as Chief Human Services, Model Cities Service Center of the National League of Cities/U.S. Conference of Mayors; Senior Staff Attorney/Deputy Director Federal Programs Division, U.S. Commission on Civil Right. Attorney at HEW and Social Worker at the Jewish Family Services in New York, New York He has taught at the University of Maryland and over the years presented a number of professional documents to conferences and workshops. Some of the latter were in collaboration with his wife, Ruth K Cohen, LCSW, a marriage and family therapist. Mr. Cohen also wrote the Forward to Rick Reamer's 1994 book, Social Work Malpractice and Liability.

Mr. Cohen, social worker and lawyer, has pioneered in both professions and is best known around the country for his 22 years of service with NASW. Most recently he returned from retirement to lead the nation's social workers for one year as Executive Director. This period was highlighted by a series of editorials in the NASW News and speeches to many social work groups in which he emphasized social worker's obligations to promote social justice and to help ascertain solutions to the problems of poverty and racial discrimination. He also served as a consultant to a forthcoming Insurance Trust sponsored NASW Press publication on risk management. His earlier assignment with NASW included those of General Counsel and Director of the Professional Services Division. In these appointments and in his earlier role as Senior Staff Associate, he worked with many issues including those around Federal standards for long term care. He was involved in concerns of certification and licensing standards, reimbursement of social workers from third party payers, social workers as expert witnesses — and other social work roles in the criminal justice system, restraint of trade litigation, inter- organizational relationships, confidentiality of social work records, social work ethics and malpractice, and liability concerns.

He was keynote and plenary session speaker at numerous national and state conferences including NASW Annual Leadership Meeting (1996), Arizona University School of Social Work Convocation (1996), NASW Annual Conference (1995), PACE (1995), NCCNHR (1995), and various NASW State Chapter annual meetings.
In 1994, he was awarded the NASW Presidential Exemplary Service Award and in 1993, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Work, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., NASW Chapter.