Meet some of the contributors to our new Portland Today show, which debuts Sept. 6 on KGW-TV and KGW.com, starting at 11 a.m. on weekdays.
Jerry Cohen, State Director, AARP Oregon
Jerry Cohen has been AARP’s State Director in Oregon for the last 20 years, working with state and national staff, volunteers, members and businesses and community organizations. He works to assure that AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization, helps Oregonians 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole.
Jerry moved to Oregon in 1996 from Kansas City, Missouri with his wife, Ruth, a social worker who specializes in care coordination and management and their daughter, Sarah.
He previously managed legislative and regulatory advocacy for AARP in five states. Past career paths have included: working at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he headed a state- and nationally-funded research and training center on aging and developmental disabilities; Legal Services of Western Missouri, where he established a volunteer attorney program with the Kansas City Bar Association; and the Missouri Division of Aging, where he served as the State’s first Legal Services Development Specialist.
Jerry has been a member of the Oregon Legislative Task Forces addressing aging and disabilities issues and is chair of Congregation Shir Tikvah’s Board of Directors. He has served on The State Future of Long Term Care Task Force and has served on the boards of the Oregon Commission for Voluntary Action & Service, Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation and Northwest Mental Health, Inc. and numerous local, state and national conferences and planning boards. He has received several leadership awards from National AARP, the Chancellor’s Office of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, The Young Lawyer’s Section of the Missouri Bar, Oregon Association on Mental Retardation, and Mid-America Congress on Aging.
A native of Wisconsin, Jerry holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a law degree from Washington University-St. Louis), and a graduate degree (MPA) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he also concentrated in gerontology and health care administration.
Jerry’s role models in caregiving and healthy aging were his parents, Hy and Lee, who were able to live to the ripe ages of 95 and 91. He credits their long, active lives to being able to stay independently in their own home for as long as possible, but also knowing when it was time for a bit more help.
