Elissa Cohen is a research associate in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where her primary research focuses on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and on workforce development program evaluations. She manages the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training database. She also works on the Welfare Rules Database project and the TANF module of ASPE's Transfer Income Model.

Before joining Urban in 2012, Cohen earned a AB in economics and a AB in sociology from Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences.