William J. Cohen, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Department of Community and Regional Planning

Contact: 267-468-8303

william.cohen@temple.edu

William J. Cohen brings an extensive background as a professional planner and teacher to Temple. He entered the professional field in 1967 and has held several responsible positions in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He was Senior Planner in the Delaware State Planning Office from 1967 to1971; was appointed Planning Director in the City of Newark, Delaware from 1971 to 1977 He was also founder and principle of a multi-disciplinary consulting firm that specialized in planning, government affairs, research, and design from 1977 to1990. From 1990 to 1998 Cohen was a Senior Resources Planner in the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control where he was appointed Executive Director of a gubernatorial task force that completed the most comprehensive planning project in the state's history. That project became the planning, design, and implementation impetus that would revitalize the Wilmington, Delaware urban waterfront.

Cohen is the author or co-author of more than 80 technical and professional publications and reports on a variety of planning topics, including general planning and policy analysis, community studies and evaluations, development controls, environmental impact, land use and site suitability, and riverfront planning and development. He has also been an expert witness in legal proceedings on land use and environmental matters.

Cohen has taught undergraduate, honors, and graduate courses and seminars since 1978 at the University of Delaware and most recently at Temple University Ambler. He has combined theoretical concepts with practical applications in courses ranging from an introduction to community and regional planning, downtown improvement, small town survival, land ethics, human geography, environment and community, and issues and trends in suburbia.

Cohen is a charter member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), a past president of the Delaware Chapter, American Planning Association (1981-1983), and a past president of the Delaware Association for Public Administration (1976-1978). He was selected as a Delaware Governor's Management Fellow (1993-1994) in recognition of exceptional management ability. In 1996, he was designated a Lewis Mumford Scholar by the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania in recognition of his professional accomplishments. In 2002, the Morris Library at the University of Delaware acquired the William J. Cohen Papers that comprise 37 linear feet of professional papers, documents, and ephemera covering his career from 1967-2001.

Cohen holds both a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Delaware and the A.M., M.C.P., and Ph.D in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.