Mark B. Cohen - Personal

Personal

Born in New York City the oldest child of longtime civic and political activists Florence and David Cohen, he is a member of what is now a prominent political family. His long serving and long-remembered father David Cohen (politician) served in the Philadelphia City Council, first as a district councilman for Northwest Philadelphia and then as a Councilman at Large, "A Position That Could Be Toughest Job in Town," The Public Record (newspaper) called it. and his brother Denis serves in the First Judicial District of the Pennsylvania Courts of Common Pleas, where he was retained for a second ten year term as a Common Pleas Court Judge on November 8, 2011, with 75.5% of the vote. His sister Sherrie Cohen came in a close 6th for the 5 Democratic seats for nomination for Philadelphia Council at Large in the May 17, 2011 Democratic primary. Cohen worked on his father's eight successful and three unsuccessful campaigns to win local election for Philadelphia. He attended Central High School of Philadelphia, graduating in 1966, after participating in two projects of the Northern Student Movement and a student Political Union modeled upon the Yale Political Union, which has produced many national political figures. As a high school student, at age 15, he attended the 1964 Democratic National Convention and noted the relatively small numbers of minority and women delegates.

He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as a features writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian an officer of the Penn affiliate of the College Democrats of America, a member of the International Affairs Association, a contributor to the Distant Drummer, an internship for Congressman William J. Green, III and Senator Joseph S. Clark, as well as being involved in, at different times, the Presidential campaigns of Eugene J. McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. He worked with Judge Clifford Scott Green and others to prepare Philadelphia delegates to the White House Conference on Children and Youth. He was one of the first group of 14 undergraduate students to serve on the University Council, an advisory body to President Gaylord P. Harnwell. As a member of the University Council, Cohen offered an amendment to a resolution opposing the War in Vietnam linking it to academic freedom and freedom of speech. The University Council defeated the underlying antiwar resolution 51-28, but it "voted to support establishment of a peace memorial to those who have died in Vietnam" and to circulate a petition members of the Council "could sign, on an individual basis, urging the President and the Congress to adopt a stepped-up timetable for withdrawal from Vietnam." Cohen graduated in 1970 with a degree in political science and served as an aide to Milton Shapp's gubernatorial campaign after briefly working for the School District of Philadelphia.

Cohen continued his education after elective office, earning a law degree from the Harrisburg campus of the Widener University School of Law in 1993 and an M.B.A. from Lebanon Valley College in 2000. Cohen is also an alumnus (2002–2003) of the Education Policy Fellowship Program of the Education Policy Leadership Center, who strongly recommends the Education Policy Fellowship Program to others. As an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar, he is qualified in the practice of law in Pennsylvania. He is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the United States District Courts for Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, and the US Supreme Court. He has performed graduate work at Temple University, Gratz College, Antioch University and the Pennsylvania State University.

He and his wife Mona, a highly acclaimed Philadelphia special education teacher and advocate for children with autism, have one daughter and reside in the Castor Gardens section of Northeast Philadelphia. Their home has received scholarly attention as one of the first residences of Jewish people in Northeast Philadelphia. The neighborhoods in and around his legislative district are rich in history of many kinds: social services, Jewish Universalist, and many others.