Ron Cohen, Board Member
Former CEO at United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles, now Momentum Innovative Disability
Ronald Cohen served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties for 35 years before retiring in 2019. Under his leadership, the organization grew from a $5 million single non-profit corporation into a $65 million operation with 26 subsidiaries. Cohen orchestrated and led the acquisition and merger of 5 similar companies into the UCP family of organizations and established UCP Wheels for Humanity, an international organization with field offices in Indonesia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ukraine and a wheelchair hub in China, manufacturing wheelchairs and distributing them to poor disabled children and adults around the world.
Prior to the President and Chief Executive Officer position, Cohen was the Clinical Director at UCP and established the first community-based group homes for developmentally disabled children with behavioral disorders in the state of California and is responsible for developing the wide continuum of services the agency provides today. Under his leadership, UCP developed 33 fully accessible rent subsidized community homes and apartments throughout Southern California.
Cohen is widely regarded as an expert on developing housing for special needs populations. He has testified before the United States Congress and the California State Legislature on community housing models and the efficacy of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Cohen was a member of the California Senate Select Committee on Autism and Related Disorders and was the Chair of the Southern California Housing Committee. He served on Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley’s Developmental Services Task Force to examine the developmental disability system regarding sustainability, healthcare, housing and employment.
Cohen began his career exploring the concept of alternatives to institutionalization. In the early 1970’s, he co-founded Intermountain Youth Center in Tucson, Arizona, and along with colleagues from the University of Kansas, pioneered the use of Applied Behavioral Analysis in home like settings for the treatment of adjudicated youth and individuals with developmental disabilities.
