Dr. Lee Cohen

West Orange Public Schools

Dr. Lee Cohen currently serves as a school psychologist in West Orange Public Schools, where he originally began working as school psychologist in 2001. From 2003-2006, he served as an administrator and school psychologist in Rahway Public Schools before returning West Orange Public Schools as a school psychologist in 2006. Dr. Cohen is also an adjunct faculty member of the School Psychology Graduate Program at Montclair State University. He also provided services to college students with Autism at Fairleigh Dickinson University through the COMPASS Program. Dr. Cohen earned his Doctorate in Psychology in May 2018 from Fairleigh Dickinson University and his certificate in school psychology from Montclair State University in 2001. Throughout the past 22 years, Dr. Cohen has worked in elementary, high school, alternative education, and transition settings, demonstrating a skillset applicable to all ages and reaching the most at-risk populations of students. Dr. Cohen provides a constant source of support to staff, students, and families within the West Orange Public School community. He takes on leadership roles in programming, and his expertise is sought out by stakeholders for the betterment of the special services department. Dr. Cohen is dedicated to learning and committed to the profession of school psychology, providing supervision to 28 graduate interns to date at both the externship and practicum levels and visiting the AP Psychology and Individual in Society classes at West Orange High School to promote the profession. 

Jackson's Wish Foundation

Jackson’s Wish is a foundation dedicated to promoting mental health and suicide awareness, providing access to mental health services for adolescents and teens, and helping families with the financial burden of therapy. The non-profit helps fund education and treatment programs directed towards adolescents and teens and have developed a network of providers in which families are assisted with the cost of mental health services through donations. The family behind this cause has turned their own tragedy into an opportunity to shine a light on mental health and help other families avoid the grief they are experiencing. Losing their son to suicide in 2021 at age 13, without any indication of the internal struggle he was facing, inspired the family to carry out what they believe is Jackson’s Wish, to help others get the support they need. Jackson was a kind and gentle young boy who was intuitive about the emotions of others and would provide help to those in need. The foundation has helped over 75 families thus far. They a created partnership with Trouble Brewing, a local coffee shop, where coffee mugs and signage encouraging discussions about mental health resulted in an adolescent turning in his suicide note and asking for help. If you are interested in making a donation or creating a business partnership, visit /helpjacksonswish.org.

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Dr. Dale Starcher

Dale Starcher, Ph.D, is a school psychologist and licensed psychotherapist. He has worked as a psychotherapist either full-time or part-time for the past 40 years and as a school psychologist for the past 25 years. As an administrator for 18 years at a private special needs school for students with mental health struggles he developed or directed a range of therapeutic programs: PBIS, individual and group counseling program for all students, two ASD classrooms, SEL for elementary students, reintegration program for traumatic brain injury, and afterschool program for DDD, and was the head of the crisis intervention team. Dale is currently Director for the Center for Stress Control, a mental health clinic. He is trained across a wide range of treatment modalities. He is author of Mindfulness-Based Counseling for Self-Regulation. He is currently chair of the Professional Development Committee for NJASP, for which he has been responsible for hosting this BeWell training initiative and generating a total of $200,000 in grants towards trainings and mental health services. He is also a member of the Government and Public Relations committee (GPR). Dale has served on the NJASP board for the past 15 years. Dale is also an adjunct professor at Rider University.