Terry Ann Cohen

Terry Ann Cohen passed peacefully in her sleep on May 22, 2024, after a longtime struggle with metastatic breast cancer. She was a loving and caring daughter, sister, and aunt; a lifelong friend and best friend, nurturing colleague, and inspiring community leader. Her brilliant mind, playful wit and sense of humor, deep Jewish faith, and strong sense of wonder and doing the right thing touched and impressed all who met her.

A Queens, New York native, Terry's friends knew her as an intellectually curious, bright, and brainy student and active community supporter. She discovered the power of her faith as a catalyst for social action and service to her community and became active in United Synagogue Youth (USY-Conservative Judaism’s youth organization). She attended SUNY Albany, studied math and computer science, and graduated with high honors in 1981. Her first job led her to Boston and GTE, developing advanced software systems for the government. She was as proud as she was thrilled to have been on the team pioneering EFL submarine communications technology. Excitement in purpose, pride in excellence, and fascination with learning would lead her to shift focus to business and marketing applications in tech. She earned an MBA from Babson College in 1990. Her interest in the human and behavioral aspects of business led her to immerse herself in the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type, and to serve as the President of the Boston Society of Psychological Type for several years.

In the early 1990’s, she joined the fledgling database/direct marketing firm that would eventually become the digital marketing powerhouse Digitas. She joined a tiny internal group, Strategic Interactive Group in 1996, and pioneered the first web-based systems that tracked users' behavior across websites. Business tech emerged as a strategic asset, and she evolved into a trusted and brilliant leader in helping clients’ understanding consumer behavior and how people interact with brands in the digital space and beyond. Her efforts became the foundation capability that allowed the company, known then as Bronner Slossberg Humphrey, to shift wholesale to a digital-centric integrated marketing agency. The firm soon became known as the world's most respected digital analytics team, and in 1999, she relocated to its New York office where she would help lead the data and analytics strategy function for the next 13 years. An industry trailblazer and thought leader, she became a sought-after speaker, task force member, and research partner for data fidelity, analytics, attribution, and consumer privacy. In 2013, she left Digitas to further pursue these global issues and associated implications of the discipline and technologies she'd helped pioneer. She joined the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) and became an at-large evangelist and advocate for industry collaboration and cooperation across agencies. She retired from the organization in 2018.

For the last decade and a half, Terry has become an active and irreplaceable member of several service communities. She's worked tirelessly with several national organizations advocating for funding, support, and research to benefit people with metastatic breast cancer and those affected by the disease. She took frequent annual trips to Washington DC to lobby on behalf of these organizations and has sat on several patient-led advisory and research review boards with Susan J. Komen and the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance. Her dedication to making life better for others extended beyond those with her disease. She has been a vibrant and engaged member of several Westchester and Greenwich Jewish congregations and has supported the community in any way she could.

She was a one-of-a-kind bright and beautiful soul, who loved math problems and word puzzles, movies and books, traveling and dancing, museums and the Mets, theatre popcorn and noodles. She was bright and curious, innocent and savvy, an unassuming A-player who saw all as worthy of the same kindness, sweetness, respect. She was a trooper, a persuadable gamer, trying things that weren't in her wheelhouse, perhaps even disliking the outcome, but always laughing and beaming with a story of the attempt. She encouraged everyone, became an ally in their project, whatever that may have been. Approachable, funny, knowledgeable, spiritual, her presence just put everyone at ease. Her engagement and openness unlocked an intimacy and authenticity that was the gift of being her friend. She made deep friendships that have endured time, employers, breakups, and distance. The web of fans she's connected remains vast. Even in the shadow of her illness, she never hesitated to share her friends, her allies, her champions, her helpers. There is not a single person who met her who wasn't softly impressed, or inspired, or charmed, or buoyed in spirit. Her quiet brightness, in whatever setting, couldn't help but emerge and fill the room with lightness. She was a treasure.

She was preceded in death by her mother, Renae Peyser Cohen. Terry is survived and deeply beloved by her father Jack and step-mother Chickie Cohen; her sister, Beth Shapiro (Eric Shapiro), niece Ariella Rush (Harel Rush) and nephew Daniel Shapiro; step-brother Alan Coffino (Deborah), niece Cate and nephew Rafe Coffino; step-brother Mark Coffino (Elyse Lurie), nephews Ralph and Kyle and niece Serena Coffino; step-sister Lori Deutsch (Peter Deutsch) and nephew Jonathan Deutsch (Chava) and niece Danielle Barak (Binyamin Barak) grand-nephew Raphael, and grand-nieces Avigail and Bina Barak; step-brother Robert Coffino (Sharon), and niece Jayme and nephew Michael Coffino. The family will receive friends from 3:00-5:00 on Friday, May 24th and on Sunday, May 26th at Terry’s home in Greenwich, CT.