Sandra B. Cohen, 1947-2025
Remembering a dedicated teacher educator and a fine colleague
Sandra Beatrice Cohen, well regarded for her efforts to provide effective preparation for teachers of children and youth and her advocacy for individuals with intellectual and learning disabilities, passed away 5 November 2025. Known as “Sandi,” she was especially concerned about the quality of instruction that students with (and without) disabilities received and devoted most of her career to helping prepare teachers to deliver evidence-informed and effective teaching.
Early in her career, Sandi focused on language and cognitive development of individuals with intellectual and learning disabilities. She wrote books about language arts instruction (with Stephen Plaskon) and teaching students with learning, intellectual, and behavioral disorders (with Gerald Wallace and Edward Polloway), and she authored and co-authored dozens of articles about learners’ instructional needs and recommended teaching methods. In addition to her substantial academic contributions, she became a leader in teacher education. She served as the director of the University of Virginia’s teacher education program as well contributing to organizations such as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Teacher Education Accreditation Council, the Council or the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, and others at both the state and national levels.
Sandi was the daughter of Yetta and Samuel Cohen. Born in 1947, she lived in Nassau, New York with her parents and her older sister Ann and bother Herbert, the eldest of the three siblings. She took an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a masters degree from Michigan State University. She completed a doctor of philosophy at Georgia State University in Atlanta and then joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in the mid-1970s and stayed for 40 years.
Sandi is survived by her husband of 44 years, Patrick C. Fowler, and their children, Jeffery and Julie and their spouses and children. She will also be fondly remembered by the scores of professors and the uncountable number of K-12 teachers whom she influenced during her career in education.
Hill and Wood Funeral Home of Charlottesville published the family’s obituary.
Sandi was one of the kindest people I’ve encountered in my now 15 years at U.Va. At the beginning of that time Sandi oriented me into the teacher preparation program and helped me recognize how essential the work I would provide is to the field well beyond any given lecture. She helped me become a better faculty member and person. She will be missed. Michael Kennedy
Thank you for sharing, I took her instruction class in UVA. She is knowledgeable. RIP.