Southeast DIrector

Gerald Cohn leadership responsibilities include educating communities, landowners and farmers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia about farmland protection. He also oversees all of AFT’s research projects, policy initiatives and land projects in the region. His work at AFT has included making presentations to agricultural, environmental and community groups about the nation’s successful farmland protection programs; helping counties create farmland protection strategies; and writing agricultural industry profiles.

Prior to joining AFT in 2000, Cohn worked for four years at Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA. His job involved working with family farmers and rural communities in North Carolina on reducing their dependency on tobacco and recovering from the effects of Hurricane Floyd. In previous positions as a consultant and teaching assistant at the University of California-Davis, Cohn worked on a variety of sustainable agriculture projects and conducted agriculture-related research.

Cohn has earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina, master of arts degree from the University of Dar Es Salaam and master of science degree in agriculture economics from the University of California-Davis. A native of Tennessee, Cohn lives on a farm in the North Carolina Piedmont with his family. They raise goats, ducks, geese and turkeys.