The Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Regional Office is pleased to welcome its newest team member, Dan Cohen, as Assistant Education Director.

Dan, a Denver native, most recently worked for the Western Educational Equity Assistance Center, a federally grant-funded agency with a mission to promote equitable educational access and opportunities in the areas of race, national origin, sex and religion. Dan’s focus was on discrimination based on sex and gender (including sexual orientation and gender expression/identity) as well as bullying and anti-bias prevention.

Previously, Dan was middle school educator who taught everything from Accelerated Language Arts to Computer Science to Yearbook/Journalism. As a middle school teacher, Dan noticed a variety of students who were not doing well academically, socially and emotionally due to lack of support at home and school concerning their sexual orientations and/or gender identities. With this in mind, Dan led students in beginning the school’s first Gender Spectrum Alliance/Equality Club and instituted programs such as ADL’s No Place for Hate® Initiative.

In addition to reading anything and everything, Dan loves spending time going to as many rock concerts as possible with his 16 year-old son, fighting for social justice alongside his 13 year-old daughter and continuing life’s journey with his bride of 23 years (who also happens to be his high school love). A chi-weenie named Poppy and a terrier named Hermione round out the family.

Dan is truly excited to be joining the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Regional Office in order to promote diversity, empathy and equity for those most in need of acceptance.