Donald J. Cohen

Donald Jay Cohen (September 5, 1940 – October 2, 2001) was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He was director of the Yale Child Study Center and the Sterling Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology at the Yale School of Medicine. According to The New York Times, he made "fundamental contributions to the understanding of autism, Tourette's syndrome and other illnesses" and his work "reshaped the field of child psychiatry." His father was a businessman. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University on a Fulbright fellowship. as well as four children, five grandchildren, Cohen was named the director of the Yale Child Study Center in 1983, a position he held until his death in 2001. and was president from 1992 to 1998. In 2000, the Donald J. Cohen National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative was established "to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events." The initiative was introduced as a bill by Senator Joe Lieberman and approved by both houses of the United States Congress to amend the Public Health Service Act to recognize Cohen's contributions to victims of violence-related stress.

Other programs established in his honor include: The Donald J. Cohen Fellowship in Developmental Social Neuroscience at Emory University. The Donald J. Cohen Fellowship Program for International Scholars in Child and Adolescent Mental Health from the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions. The Donald J. Cohen Medical Student Training Program at the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families.