Ariana V. Cohen, LCSW, is currently serving as Vice President of the Board of Education for the Mamaroneck Union Free School District. Ariana has spent her career as an educational leader and mental health practitioner.
Before moving to private practice working with children and parents, Ariana was the longstanding head Social Worker at Columbia Grammar School, where she also served as Dean of Students, before ultimately being elevated to the Associate Head of Lower School (PK-6). During her time as Social Worker, Ariana was responsible for creating the school’s entire social-emotional curriculum from the ground up, balancing teaching social-emotional wellness in a classroom environment with working with children and families in a traditional clinical setting.
Ariana’s experience also includes positions at both Sankofa Academy Charter School (Brooklyn, NY), where she worked with displaced teens awaiting criminal charges; and MS 254 (Bronx, NY), as well as volunteer work with The Fresh Air Fund, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and The Association for Anorexia & Associated Disorders.
Ariana received her Masters in Social Work from Fordham University, and her BA in Psychology from Lehigh University. Ariana lives in Larchmont with her husband and three children, all of whom are enrolled in the Mamaroneck Public School system. Ariana is grateful to have had the opportunity to serve her community for the past three years, and hopes to build upon the work started in a second term.
Why are you running for the Mamaroneck School Board?
My motivation for joining the Board three years ago was to apply my professional experience working with children and families. As a member of the School Board for the past three years, I have been grateful to serve as a voice that always has the children’s best interests at heart. While I came into the Board role with deep experience in both emotional health and school curriculum, I have been fortunate to learn a tremendous amount about all aspects of public education in our district, most specifically around budgeting and prioritization.
I have chosen to run for a second term because I look forward to putting all my recent experience to even greater use. There is a steep learning curve regarding the nuances of the system, and it’s empowering to be able to take those learnings and apply them with an even greater sense of understanding and confidence.
I believe in the power of education, and I am committed to continuing in a role that ensures all Mamaroneck students have the ability and opportunity to access their unique, fullest potential. It is our mission as a district to have the infrastructure in place to make that possible, and our role as a Board to ensure that the district has what it needs to do so while remaining fiscally responsible to taxpayers.
What is the biggest issue facing our schools, and how can you help address it?
The job of educating all students in a post-pandemic world will be our most pressing and important challenge. How the school district supports our children emotionally and academically through this challenging time, will ultimately result in the past year being either a defining memory, or a defining outcome.
Through the further development of meaningful and adaptive curriculum, we have the power to teach our way through this. We have the power to not just manage, but to help students thrive by applying the important lessons learned. We have the power to integrate all of the technology our district has invested in, so that students and teachers can access programming, and each other, in ways never previously imagined. So at this critical moment it is my hope that our School Board is composed of members that are invested in all children. I hope that we can take a shared vision and make financial decisions that allow every child, no matter their starting place, to reach his/her personal best, understanding that high expectations benefit all students and that a Board that has high expectations will support and encourage programming that benefits all.