Jodi S. Cohen

Jodi S. Cohen is an award-winning investigative journalist and senior editor at ProPublica, specializing in education policy and civil rights issues. A University of Michigan political science graduate and former managing editor of The Michigan Daily, she built her career through roles at The Detroit News and Chicago Tribune, where she spent 14 years as an investigative reporter and editor. Her groundbreaking work includes exposing the University of Illinois' secret admissions system, revealing systemic misuse of seclusion rooms in Illinois schools (which won the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics), and uncovering pandemic-era injustices in Michigan's juvenile justice system. Based in Chicago, Cohen has consistently focused on institutional accountability through investigations into education disparities, police disciplinary failures, and civil rights enforcement gaps.