About Jody
Jody Cohan-French is an award-winning writer, editor, and writing coach. Her latest book, The Write Way into College, is an accessible guide that shows students how to set themselves apart from the competition with compelling application essays.
Her previous book, The World Was Our Stage: Spanning the Globe with ABC Sports, is a collaboration with 17-time Emmy Award-winning producer/director Doug Wilson. Doug's master storytelling abilities are transferred to pages, where he recounts his incredible fifty-year journey with ABC Sports and its groundbreaking sports anthology program, Wide World of Sports. This book won four awards in both sports and history categories.
Jody's book, What If Your Prince Falls Off His Horse?--The Married Woman's Primer on Financial Planning, also won several awards, including top honors in the Business Category at the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival. From 2005 through 2010, Jody coauthored the Procrastinator's SOS Planner.
Jody began her career at Embassy Communications (formerly Tandem/T.A.T.), which produced many hit television shows, including All in the Family and One Day at a Time. She started in the company's in-house advertising agency, then moved to the syndication division where she developed and implemented marketing strategies for its newly acquired film library. Jody subsequently worked in production on several feature films and coordinated media center operations for women's professional tennis (then Virginia Slims Tennis) at tournaments in New York, Los Angeles, and Indian Wells. She currently has a screenplay in development.
As a corporate communications consultant, Jody has worked with clients to hone press releases, advertising copy, website content, blogs, articles, and business plans and communications. As a writing coach, she has conducted workshops and critiqued and edited manuscripts, papers, essays, and screenplays. Jody taught writing at IvyMax, Inc., where she assisted students with their college application essays and other writing assignments; she also trained other editors. Jody currently works independently.
Jody's students have gained entry to their dream universities, including Amherst, Arizona, Arizona State, Babson, Beloit, Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO, Caltech, Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, Chapman, Claremont McKenna, College of Charleston, Colorado Boulder, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Duke, Edinburgh (UK), Emory, Fordham, Georgetown, George Washington University, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Illinois, Indiana, Ithaca, Johns Hopkins, Loyola, Maine, Manhattan College, Maryland, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Michigan, Michigan State, MIT, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Northern Arizona University, Northwestern, Notre Dame, NYU, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Occidental, Ohio State, Oregon, Oxford, UPenn, Pepperdine, Pitt, Pratt, Princeton, Purdue, Rensselaer, Rice, RISD, Rutgers, SDSU, Santa Clara, Scripps, Stanford, Swarthmore, TCU, Texas A&M, Tufts, UChicago, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UNC, University College London, USC, UT Austin, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Vanderbilt, Vermont, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington, Washington University in St. Louis, Wellesley, Williams, Wisconsin, and Yale.
Jody also helps middle, high school and college students with their essays for applications, and scholarship and extracurricular programs. Admissions include the Cornell Precollege Studies Summer Session in Hospitality Operations Management: Entrepreneurship in the Food & Beverage Industry, the Lumiere Research Program, The American School in Japan, Phillips Academy Andover, and Yale Young Global Scholars.
Jody is a volunteer mentor for WriteGirl, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that empowers teen girls through writing, where she supports the Education Team and conducts workshops. She previously volunteered as an essay coach for SHE-CAN Global, Inc. This non-profit organization based in Mill Valley, California connects professional mentors in the United States with young female leaders from post-conflict countries to win U.S. college scholarships and become change-agents in their home countries. Jody is also a UCLA Scholarship Application Reviewer.
EducationBachelor of Arts, Motion Picture-Television, University of California, Los Angeles
Screenwriting Fellow, The American Film Institute Visiting Student, School of Communications,The University of Texas at Austin Professional Designation in Personal Financial Planning, UCLA Extension Fiction Program, Squaw Valley Community of Writers ContactBased in Southern California, Jody works with writers and students around
the globe via the Internet. Email: jc@jodycohanwriter.com |
Praise for Jody's New Book
“ Jody Cohan-French is a guide of extraordinary knowledge,
compassion, and creativity. She provides students with individualized
pathways to college attainment by focusing on the personal statement.
Her talent and insight are assets that will significantly improve the
chances of any student. With Jody’s help, higher education dreams
can come true.”
—ALLISON DEEGAN, EdD, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
& EDUCATION TEAM LEADER, WRITEGIRL
“ Jody is a persistent yet gentle master at helping every student
she works with find their unique story and individual voice,
from which a distinctive and memorable essay or short answer
is composed. For the student who is unable to work privately
with Jody, this book serves as an excellent resource for
incorporating Jody’s spot on and effective college application
essay writing advice.”
—BETH A. LEWIS, COORDINATOR, RONALD E. McNAIR
POSTBACCALAUREATE ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM
“ Jody Cohan-French is a guide of extraordinary knowledge,
compassion, and creativity. She provides students with individualized
pathways to college attainment by focusing on the personal statement.
Her talent and insight are assets that will significantly improve the
chances of any student. With Jody’s help, higher education dreams
can come true.”
—ALLISON DEEGAN, EdD, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
& EDUCATION TEAM LEADER, WRITEGIRL
“ Jody is a persistent yet gentle master at helping every student
she works with find their unique story and individual voice,
from which a distinctive and memorable essay or short answer
is composed. For the student who is unable to work privately
with Jody, this book serves as an excellent resource for
incorporating Jody’s spot on and effective college application
essay writing advice.”
—BETH A. LEWIS, COORDINATOR, RONALD E. McNAIR
POSTBACCALAUREATE ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM