Jennifer Cotter

Jen Brady Cotter has been actively engaged in violence prevention, community building, and other peacemaking efforts for the past 25 years.  In 2001, she cofounded National Youth Violence Prevention Week, a campaign now adopted by Sandy Hook Promise, that engages all sectors from the community to work hand-in-hand with youth to raise awareness and collaboratively develop violence prevention programs and solutions.  Ms. Brady Cotter also created and managed an award-winning online magazine, GuidanceChannel.com, focusing on social, emotional, and educational issues facing K-12 students.  Its investigative reporting on targeted school violence was recognized at the National Press Club with a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers for the best online publication in education.

Over the past ten years Ms. Brady Cotter has focused on peacebuilding efforts in her local community.  As a board member for SEPA Mujer, a Latina advocacy organization, she’s had the opportunity to support programs assisting immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence and human trafficking through legal assistance, counseling, support groups, and leadership training.  

As Literary Chair for the Patchogue Arts Council, Ms. Brady Cotter partnered with Herstory Writers Workshop to host a weekly social justice memoir writing workshop.  By giving voice to the hidden communities on Long Island, the initiative helped to cultivate empathy and a deeper understanding of the challenges confronting them.   The writings from these workshops were featured in several public readings, including in Freedom Forums hosted at the local public library and Stony Brook University.  Ms. Brady Cotter also developed resources to highlight how personal testimony can be used initiate dialogue, offer perspective into one another’s struggles, and change hearts, minds, and public policies.   

Ms. Brady Cotter is also a cofounder of People Power Patchogue, a local civil rights organization that strives to build community awareness and advocate for social justice, including supporting the local immigrant community, promoting criminal justice reform, and campaigning for equitable access to the ballot box.  As an active member of Building Bridges in Brookhaven, she works to help build friendships and alliances among the diverse communities of Brookhaven Town.    In this capacity she’s helped to organize annual MLK celebrations dedicated to building Dr. King’s vision of the Beloved Community. 

As the Chairperson for the Patchogue Peace Project, Ms. Brady Cotter worked with an array of community partners help Patchogue officially become Long Island’s first International City of Peace. With this designation Patchogue joined a network of over 330 other cities across the globe dedicated to building a culture of peace.   While it is an honor to achieve this designation and join this network, it is also the goal of the Patchogue Peace Project to use this as an opportunity to initiate and support ongoing efforts to put peace into action.  Upcoming events include community conversations to identify shared values, as well as programs to teach conflict management, compassionate communication, and other peacebuilding skills.  With other local communities also seeking to be designated as International Cities of Peace, Ms. Brady Cotter looks forward to growing a sister city network that will unite peacebuilding efforts across Long Island.