EIU Media Relations

EIU to host public presentation with bestselling author Harlan Cohen

“An Open Session with Harlan Cohen” at Booth Library Thursday, November 16

(Charleston, IL) –Eastern Illinois University will host bestselling international author and nationally renowned educational speaker Harlan Cohen November 16.

“An Open Conversation with Harlan Cohen” will take place from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, November 16 in the Booth Library’s Center for Student Innovation (Room 1220), on campus at 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston. EIU Director of Faculty Development and Innovation and Professor of Sociology Dr. Michael Gillespie will facilitate the event.

“Harlan is an excellent speaker, and EIU is lucky to host this event,” said Jay Gatrell, EIU President. “Harlan’s enthusiasm and engaging personality are great fits for EIU and its mission, and we’re excited to witness his dynamic and vivid presentation and personality in person on November 16th.”

According to his website, Cohen has been in the business of helping people for over 25 years. He is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books, journalist, and speaker who has visited more than 500 high school and college campuses whose specialty is “helping people get comfortable with the uncomfortable.”

Cohen’s life experiences are diverse. He began his professional career began at the Indiana Daily Student at Indiana University (IU-Bloomington) before interning at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, California.

It was during The Tonight Show internship Cohen met a writer who led him to write advice pieces. Cohen returned to IU to start writing his Help Me, Harlan! advice column, which led him to researching answers and meeting a wide variety of experts that helped guide his career journey. After a few years, Cohen’s column was picked up by The New York Daily News and eventually King Features Syndicate, which distributed his column in newspapers around the world for more than fifteen years.

From there, Cohen earned a position with Purdue University’s (Indiana) orientation team, where he blossomed as a speaker whose outreach spanned more than 500 high school and college campuses. To this day, Cohen loves meeting people and hearing their stories, and continues to offer his speaker engagements to a variety of broad, diverse audiences.

Cohen eventually founded an online college success program called Best First Year (courses.bestfirstyear.com). Best First Year is a college coaching program for students and parents consisting of virtual events, live Q&A, videos, and resources designed to help high school and college students work with higher education institutions to navigate and impact positive change.

For more information about Cohen, visit harlancohen.com. Information about this and other EIU events are available by viewing EIU’s online calendar at eiu.edu/calendar.