Draft:Ivy Cohen

Cohen grew up in Brooklyn, NY. After receiving her BA from University of California, Berkeley and MBA from Georgetown University,^[4][5] Ivy launched her business career in brand management at Procter & Gamble, where she was a pioneer in Hispanic-targeted marketing; her contributions are noted in Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong’s business school textbook, Principles of Marketing.^[6]

She led PR and investor relations at one of the first e-commerce healthcare brands, SelfCare.com, and served as vice president for public and investor relations at JDPower.com.^[7]

Cohen was president and CEO^[8] of the national youth empowerment and drug abuse prevention organization Just Say No^[9][10] International for 10 years (1987-1997).^[11][12][13] In this role, she grew youth participation from 25,000 to 1 million^[14] youth across all 50 states.^[15] Ivy served as an advisor to three presidential administrations,^[16] advocated before Congress, and collaborated with five drug czars.

For 10 years, she was chair of the City of Oakland International Trade and Foreign Investment Commission, serving as the government representative that led trade delegations overseas, welcomed overseas investors to California, and helped companies negotiate significant trade deals.^{[citation needed]}

Cohen established her own agency, Ivy Cohen Corporate Communications (ICCC) in 2001.^[17] She was named to Crain’s Notable Women Business Owners List in May 2021.^[18][19] ICCC global clients have included Danone, DHL, Publicis Health, Teva Pharmaceutical, and Western Union.

Cohen is an author whose work has been published in Entrepreneur.com, MediaPost, Advertising Week, and her own newsletter, Hey C-Suite. She is the communications expert cited on “Reducing Aftershocks and Managing the Message” in the McGraw Hill book, What to Do When Things Go Wrong by Frank Supovitz, and featured in MSNBC Host JJ Ramberg’s It's YOUR Business: 183 Tips That Will Transform Your Small Business. Cohen contributed a chapter to Cynthia Groves’ 2025 book Mastering the Corporate Chess Game, published by Georgetown University Press.^[20] Her writing and insights have also been featured in PM360,^[21] MM&M (Haymarket Media),^[22][23] and Healthcare Marketer’s Exchange. She was a judge for PR Week’s 2023 PR Healthcare Awards.

Since 2020^[update], Cohen has been an advisor with Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Ambassador Program, working with Amgen, Sumitomo Pharma/Sunovion, Johnson & Johnson, and Takeda LatAm. She has also served as a Master Class instructor for the program.

She serves as PR and communications advisor and mentor for startup incubators and accelerators, including the Berkeley SkyDeck,^[24] Mount Sinai Innovation Program,^[25] MedStartr, NYU Future Labs, WEVE Acceleration (formerly NUMA), and Zahn Innovation Center.

Cohen spent 16 years on the board of YouthBridge-New York,^[26][27] a teen diversity leadership program in New York City. She served as co-chair of the women’s professional division of the UJA-Federation of New York. She teaches weekly classes for children at the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem.

In 2009, she earned the PENCIL Innovative Partnership Award^[28] for her work as a corporate partner to P.S. 247.^[29] In 2005, she co-created and led the College Partnership Program™ for this elementary school in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood, where she visits every class every year.^{[citation needed]}