Jessica Cohen

Jessica Cohen is currently the CFO at YMCA of South Florida. Prior to their current position, they were the Associate Vice President for Financial Affairs at Florida Atlantic University from January 2021 to November 2021. In this role, they oversaw 65+ cross-functional staff and served as an integral member of the senior management team. Jessica was also responsible for governing all aspects of FAU’s $900M budget process and ensuring effective stewardship of the university’s financial resources.

During their time at Florida Atlantic University, Jessica was able to spearhead the spend management arm within financial affairs. Jessica developed and implemented technology for spend management analytics which drove savings and revenue generating opportunities. Jessica also created and hired a Director of Spend Management role and oversaw the implementation of SCOUT, a Workday integrated product for strategic sourcing, pipeline, contract management and savings tracking.

Additionally, Jessica was able to construct a do not exceed budget during the COVID year with fluid expectations of state appropriations, tuition revenues and auxiliary revenues. Jessica introduced cost control measures via contingencies and reserves to mitigate projected revenue losses and state holdbacks during the unprecedented year.

Thanks to their efforts, Jessica was able to save the net present value of $7M+ in housing debt service costs by leveraging forward delivery refinancing opportunity as a key part of the bond-refinancing team. Jessica also advised, tracked and reported on the appropriate disbursement of $141M+ of student and institutional Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF).

Jessica Cohen went to Pace University - Lubin School of Business and got a Bachelor of Business Administration - BBA in Accounting.

and Andrea Townsend - SVP, Corporate Finance reports to Jessica Cohen. Jessica Cohen works with Alison Bregman-Rodriguez - VP, Special Needs, Bill Arterburn - VP, Financial Operations, and Jackie Roca - VP, Human Resources. Jessica Cohen reports to Sheryl A. Woods, President & CEO.