While reading The New York Times on February 19, 1994, Dr Janice Cohn came upon a small article with no byline. The headline proclaimed, “Montana Outrage Stalls Skinheads.” The subheading said, “Early Reaction in Billings, Led by the Police Chief, Cows Racist Organizations.” She immediately knew two things: she wanted to know more, and she wanted to write about it. “Just the week before, there had been a racist incident in my own community. Town leaders were searching for a way to respond. There was no agreement about what to do, and we were all on edge. This New York Times article really spoke to me.” Janice put in a call to the Billings Police Station. Unbeknownst to her, in the aftermath of the article, a great many other individuals and organizations—from around the world—had the same idea. There were so many people attempting to call the police department that its switchboard became jammed for hours. No one was able to get through during that time, except one person. For reasons no one (least of all Janice) understands, she was that person.

Dr. Cohn is a practicing psychotherapist [who specializes in helping adults and children cope with grief, loss, and life transitions]. ​Her former newspaper column for the Family Times section of The Washington Times, which focused on raising compassionate children, ran for over two years and reached approximately half a million people. She is a former presidential faculty appointee to the Columbia University Continuing Education Seminar on Death and Dying, and former chairperson of the Multidisciplinary Bereavement Committee of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

​Dr. Cohn has served as a special consultant to the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court in Ocean County, New Jersey, focusing on the emotional needs of children and parents during the process of separation and divorce. In conjunction with this project, she has written an educational handbook, Surviving the Pain of Divorce and Separation: 8 Steps for Parents and Children, which has been distributed throughout the state via the family court system.

​Dr. Cohn's book I Had a Friend Named Peter: Talking to Children About the Death of a Friend (William Morrow, 1987) has been cited for excellence by a number of educational organizations and has received critical praise from publications such as The New York Times Book Review and School Library Journal. Her second book, Why Did It Happen? Helping Children Cope in a Violent World (Morrow, 1994), was chosen as a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and has been praised by School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, among other publications. A third book, Molly's Rosebush (Albert Whitman, 1994), which deals with a young child's reaction to her mother’s miscarriage, was praised by School Library Journal, Booklist, and renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, who called the book “charming and very insightful.”