\Feature\

Faces of Philanthropy

Samara Cohen, C’93, W’93

by Rebecca Raber

Following a mantra of “progress and purpose,” Penn GSE’s newest board member is inspired to support others on a journey of lifelong learning.

eachers have shaped Samara Cohen’s life in profound ways. Educators run in her family: both her sister and aunt are teachers. An “incredible” high school calculus teacher nurtured her love of math. And a Tufts economics professor introduced her to the discipline that put her on her path to a career in finance.

“I think a constant thread in my life has been the transformative power of great teachers,” said Cohen, who transferred to Penn her sophomore year and graduated with a dual degree in theater and economics from the College and Wharton. “When students ask me what they should study in college, I always tell them to find the best teachers first.”

Progress and purpose—and leadership

That’s why Cohen, a senior managing director at BlackRock, wanted to join Penn GSE’s board of advisors, which she did earlier this year—to offer her leadership expertise in service of a School that educates the next generation of educators.

“I hope to be a part of progressing the mission of GSE,” she said. “Progress and purpose are my dual mantras, and GSE very much has a story of creating a culture [of both].”

In order to encourage that progress and purpose, Cohen recently made a gift that serves three key areas of Penn GSE—financial aid, the new McGraw Center for Educational Leadership, and the Penn GSE Annual Fund—as well as contributes to the fund celebrating Pam Grossman’s deanship with an endowed scholarship and a named classroom in the School’s newly expanded building.

“I wanted the support to be broad and impactful,” said Cohen. “I felt a real connection with Pam when I met her, so I wanted to celebrate her and her leadership and deanship. I also [wanted to] make the biggest difference. I have two teen kids. . . and the teaching of teens feels very personal to me. My kids were super lucky to have access to excellent educators, but the most scaled way I could bring that to other children was by supporting other people who wanted to become educators.”

From the stage to the trading floor

Though obvious lines can be drawn from her Wharton classrooms to her work as chief investment officer of the exchange-traded funds (ETF) and index investments at BlackRock, she is quick to emphasize how much her liberal arts education in theater serves her as well.

“So many of those lessons that I learned in theater apply to leadership in many ways,” she said. “I talk to people about how casting is 95 percent of directing, and now I apply that to putting the right person in the right job, which is a lot of what I do running the business that I run.”

In fact, it was the parallels that she drew between the trading floor and the stage that led her to her career in the first place.

“Working in the markets calls on a lot of the things I loved about theater,” she said. “Being on a trading floor is like production week of a show. You have to multitask, but it’s very collaborative, very high energy. It’s an environment that I thrive in. As soon as I walked onto the trading floor. . . I felt like I belonged. There were so few women at the time, but it didn’t bother me at all because the energy, the feeling of it, was comfortable to me.”

Setting new goals at GSE

Cohen also used her performing arts experience as the guest host of BlackRock’s investment podcast The Bid for a four-part miniseries during Women’s History Month in March. One episode was devoted to a conversation on “the power of purpose” with Penn GSE faculty member Annie McKee.

Cohen was introduced to McKee during a meeting at the School, after which she immediately bought McKee’s book, How to Be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship (Harvard Business Review Press, 2017). It was an inspiration.

“I’ve always known and felt the importance of purpose in work,” said Cohen. “But the importance of hope—especially coming off a year like the last one—and friendships really resonated with me. That sense of optimism about being able to better the world is really important in being able to face every day. We need to believe that how we choose to spend that day can make a difference.”

Cohen is now looking forward to expanding her purpose and making a difference at Penn GSE.

“I hope to be a lifelong learner,” she said, “and I’m excited to learn more about what GSE does and to contribute to its culture of continuous learning.”

Back to Issue