Though it was more than 30 years ago, Jewish Community Services Executive Director Joan Grayson Cohen will never forget the interview that launched her career with the agency.
“Lucy Steinitz was executive director of Jewish Family Services [the precursor to JCS] and my second interview was with her,” recalls Cohen. “Lucy was very direct. She said, ‘We want to hire you. You’re going to take this job. I know you have young children, but you’re going to be fine.’”
Cohen, a native New Yorker and Pikesville resident, has worked there ever since. She became the agency’s executive director in 2016. Cohen’s first job at the agency was as a child abuse and neglect project coordinator.
“I created and managed the program,” she says. “Its initial essence was to go into the community and educate rabbis, teachers and anybody else in the Jewish community [working with children] about the law in terms of reporting child abuse or neglect and how to make those reports. Since I was both an attorney and a social worker, I was a natural fit for the job.”
Over the years, Cohen held countless roles with JFS and JCS. She was frequently asked to create new programs or grow existing programming. For a time, she served as attorney for the agency’s adoption unit. She also headed the JCS Access Center; managed child and adolescent services; and prior to assuming the executive director role, she was department director for economic sufficiency.
A highlight of Cohen’s career was working with the late Adie Carlyle, a Jewish Community Center staff member, to create JOIN for Teens, a program providing recreational, social, educational and preventive programs for Jewish teens and their families. The program was open to all Jewish teens but focused primarily on Orthodox teens in the Park Heights area.
“We had teen outreach workers that literally would go out on the street at all sorts of odd hours of the evening and see kids on the street and stop and engage with them,” says Cohen. “They developed relationships with them. They’d connect them to therapeutic and physical health resources and mentors, because a lot of these kids were rejected by their parents and their community.”
The teen outreach workers also encouraged the youngsters to come to JOIN’s teen center to participate in events.
“The philosophy of the teen center was at night you would come by us so you wouldn’t be out drinking,” Cohen says. “We used to have literally hundreds of kids who would come to events there. We knew when they were by us, they were safe. It doesn’t mean those kids didn’t pre-drink and we knew that they were under the influence, but we kept them there and would call parents to pick them up, no questions asked. It was a place they were accepted and got support. … And then we would do community programs for parents and work with schools. The partnerships and services literally saved lives.”
Cohen believes one factor that made JOIN successful was its collaborative nature. She says she deeply appreciates the way in which all of the agencies of The Associated work together.
“The Associated is a remarkable system,” she says. “I have a very different experience than my colleagues across the country in my same role. I would be spending most of my time fundraising, which to be frank wouldn’t be a stimulating position for me. I get to really think about the work and the agency, the sustainability of programs, and I wouldn’t have that luxury if we had a different system.”
Cohen says the structure of The Associated also gives her an opportunity to use her experience as a strategic thinker.
“We certainly have our core program and mission, but we look at the needs in the community, and I find that very invigorating to be able to strategize about our next steps,” she says. “I love to problem-solve, and you can’t be exec of an agency this large and not face problems or the [sorts of] crises we’ve had in our world. Do I want them to happen? No. Do they happen realistically? Of course. The problem-solving aspect of how you utilize your brain and skills is something really stimulating to me.”
Cohen deeply appreciates her colleagues, some of whom she has worked with for three decades.
“The dedication and camaraderie and collegial partnerships and connections we have forged over all of these years is amazing. I still keep in touch with many of the people who have retired because we kind of grew up together,” says Cohen.
She also makes sure her staff receives the support they need. That concern is reflected in the fact that JCS was voted a “Top Place to Work” by the Baltimore Sun for two consecutive years.
“The agency’s really become my heart and my soul,” says Cohen. “I truly love the work that I do. I also love to learn, so I always try — when I have time — to take [learning] opportunities. Because if I don’t learn or don’t think I should learn, then I shouldn’t be sitting in this chair.”
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