David Cohen

Join Leadership Talks on Friday, March 11 at 1 pm ET for a live, online interview with David Cohen, co-founder of the Advocacy Institute. He has worked extensively with Leadership for a Changing World awardees, and will talk about how their leadership styles fit within the new "rights-based approach" to development. David has recently written about how the rights-based approach respects human dignity, achieving fairness in opportunities and equal treatment for all and strengths the ability of local communities to access resources and services. In addition to answering your questions, David will talk about how U.S. and international organizations can use the rights-based approach in their advocacy work, as well as other lessons from his 40 plus years of public interest work.

David has been an advocate and strategist on many of the major social justice and political reform issues in the United States since the early 1960s. These issues include civil rights, anti-poverty and reforming U.S. political processes by eliminating abuses of power and the corrupting influence of money on American politics. He played a leading role in the fight for Congress to end its support for the Vietnam War. From 1984-92 David led the Professionals' Coalition for Nuclear Arms Control - physicians, scientists, lawyers, and social workers - to stop the United States nuclear arms build-up by supporting arms control agreements and reducing the military budget. He served as president of Common Cause from 1975-81, the largest voluntary membership organization in the United States working on government accountability issues. David's contributions are recognized in biographies and histories of the period.

At the Advocacy Institute, David helped pioneer the Institute's capacity building programs, where he facilitates workshop and strategy sessions. His expertise is used to counsel social justice movement groups in the U.S. and abroad to effectively communicate in ways that can build public will, inform legislative and community debate, and shape public policy.

For More Information

"A new rights-based language," by David Cohen

"Giving Voice to Your Mission: The Secrets of Building Will and Shaping Public Policy," keynote lecture by David Cohen at the 2004 Edward A. Smith Awards for Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership