Columbia University School of Social Work Adjunct Faculty

Samuel Cotton Samuel Cotten taught U.S. Social Welfare Policy at the Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW) at the time of his selection for the Fellowship. Mr. Cotton received his MSW from CUSSW in 1995. Subsequent to earning his MSW, he worked with mentally ill criminals and at the time of selection for the Musher Fellowship he was the Assistant Director of the NYC Link Program, which provided case management and linkages to the community for persons leaving incarceration. Samuel Cotton was the Executive Director of the Coalition Against Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan (CASMAS). CASMAS is an organization dedicated to raising the awareness of the American public to the existence of slavery and human-rights abuses in Mauritania and Sudan. Mr. Cotton was a documentary filmmaker, a recipient of the Petra Foundation Human Rights Fellowship and was the first Columbia University School of Social Work’s Musher International Fellow. He was an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in the City Sun, Daily Challenge, New York Post, and Vibe Magazine. He has appeared on Dateline NBC, Tony Brown’s Journal, and Black Entertainment Television. He published Silent Terror: A Journey Into Contemporary African Slavery. He was a Ph.D. candidate at CUSSW. Mr. Cotton is now deceased.