David Cohen is Co-Director of the Advocacy Institute, Co-Chair of the Advocacy Institute Board and one of its two founders. David pioneered the Institute's work in its international 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 gain support for their public agenda. His work extends to countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, The Middle East, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. David is also an active participant in the Institute's Leadership for a Changing World Program. He directs the Learning Initiatives aspect of the program, which provides funds for the learning of awardees and their colleagues to strengthen the overall purpose of an organization's program.

Advocacy practitioners around the world have translated his writings on advocacy, civil society and lobbying into many different languages. His writings have appeared as essays in college text books and in major U.S. publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. His most recent publication is a chapter in the Non-Profit Lobbying Guide (by Bob Smucker) entitled: Being A Public Interest Lobbyist Is Something To Write Home About. In the fall of 2001, Kumarian Press will publish Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide, and David is one of three co-authors.

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.