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Hal Cohen has served as the Director of Planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) Support Foundation and Center for Planning Excellence in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As the project manager for the regional growth plan "Louisiana Speaks" he provided long-term planning and policy framework for south Louisiana including the integration of levees, coastal restoration, land use, infrastructure and economic development. This plan was developed in coordination with a nationally renowned consultant team led by Calthorpe Associates and including a number of New Orleans' planners, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and other state agencies. Mr. Cohen served as the lead staff planner for the LRA Long-Term Community Planning Task Force .
His responsibilities and accomplishments at the LRA include crafting a legislative agenda and integrating planning priorities into Louisiana's ongoing recovery planning; defining a scope for a model development code; directing requests-for-proposal initiatives for comprehensive plans; managing educational resources, contracts, budgets and schedules; and, coordinating a wide-reaching outreach campaign including public meetings, workshops, surveys, as well as television, internet, and print media (over 26,000 Louisianans participated).
Prior to working with JLWA and the LRA, Mr. Cohen was Associate Editor and Staff Writer for The Baton Rouge Business Report, covering real estate development and urban planning. He received multiple state and national awards for explanatory writing, investigative journalism and his overall body of work. As a free-lance journalist Mr. Cohen's work appeared in The New York Times, Village Voice, Metropolis, Industry Standard, Lingua Franca and other publications.
As a planner for Friends of Wisconsin in Madison Mr. Cohen worked to implement Wisconsin's Comprehensive Planning Law; developed a framework for evaluation of local comprehensive plans; oversaw policy analysis; and, worked with lobbying staff on issues concerning transportation, housing, and land use at the state, regional, and local levels. He has held other notable positions with Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, Inc., New York and the New York City Department of City Planning, Transportation Division.
Mr. Cohen earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Michigan, Phi Beta Kappa, a Master of Arts in History from Columbia University, and Master of Urban Planning from the Wagner School at New York University. | 