Nancy Cozean currently serves as Mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie. As a business woman she has more than 30 years experience as an award-winning broadcast journalist and public relations professional, specializing in programming, presentations, and advocacy development.

Ms. Cozean has created and produced broadcast programs, reported and anchored newscasts in major television markets, and currently serves as a media and public relations advisor for private and not-for-profit organizations. She has also served as regional communications director for tourism and public relations director for a regional health organization. As the founder of Cozean Communications, Ms. Cozean provides public relations and media services for local, regional, and area businesses and organizations. Additionally she produces and hosts Hudson Valley Views, an award winning local program on Mid-Hudson Time Warner Cable.

As a professional broadcaster, Ms. Cozean was a reporter and anchor for major markets, including Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Missouri, and Albany, New York. She also helped launch the area’s first televised tourism program, Hudson Valley Magazine’s GETAWAY (broadcast in New York, New Jersey, and Manhattan). Previously, she was part of a start-up team for the Hudson Valley’s first commercial television station, WTZA-TV (RNN), and also developed and produced weekend programs for Cablevision’s first 24 hour news station in New Jersey, News 12 New Jersey.

Since 1990, Ms. Cozean has also pursued public relations interests. She was the Public Relations Director for the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association, the second largest hospital association in New York State. There she developed and implemented community awareness, advocacy, and media programs.

Additionally, she served as the Director of Tourism Communications for New York State’s Department of Economic Development Regional Office, where she coordinated and developed tourism projects, as well as marketing and public relations programs for the Hudson Valley as part of the “I Love New York” program. While at NYSDED, Ms. Cozean headed a joint news conference with several other state agencies as part of the successful 25th anniversary of Woodstock II.

Ms. Cozean is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she earned her M.A. and B.J. She is also a graduate of Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she received a B.A. She has been an adjunct professor at Dutchess Community College, State University of New York-New Paltz, and Marist College. Ms. Cozean resides in the City of Poughkeepsie with her husband Donald Jacob, a retired Pfizer executive and the Executive Director of the Neuropathy Association. Their daughter, Josephine, graduated from Fordham University last May and is working in the area.