Jeff Cohen, Connecticut Public Radio’s News Director, is a proud New Orleans native who now calls New England home. Or at least his second home.
He started in newspapers in 2001 and joined WNPR in 2010, where he has worked as a reporter, a host, and, since 2017, the station’s news director.
In addition to covering state and Hartford city politics, Jeff covered the December 2012 Newtown shootings and the stories that followed. Much of that work was featured on NPR. Also in 2012, Jeff was selected by NPR and Kaiser Health News for their joint Health Care In The States project. That work resulted in several national stories, including ones on the Affordable Care Act and medical education. In his role as news director, Jeff began The Island Next Door — Puerto Rico and Conneticut After Hurricane Maria — an ongoing, award-winning reporting project involving the entire Connecticut Public Radio newsroom.
Before working at WNPR, Jeff worked as the city reporter for The Hartford Courant. While at the Courant, he won a National Headliner Award for a Northeast Magazine story about the ostracized widow of the state’s first casualty in Iraq; wrote about his post-Katrina, flooded out home in New Orleans; and was part of a team of reporters that broke the stories of alleged corruption at Hartford City Hall that led to the arrest of former Mayor Eddie A. Perez. He also worked at the Meriden Record-Journal and as a freelancer for The New York Times.
Jeff lives in Middletown with his wife, cats, and two trouble-making kids. Thanks to the kids, he’s written two children’s books. The first, Eva and Sadie and the Worst Haircut Ever!, came out in June 2014. The second, Eva and Sadie and the Best Classroom Ever!, came out in June 2015. He likes to make bread and wine.