To say Margaret “Peggy” Cohen Voss is a dedicated volunteer is like saying Taylor Swift is a talented musician. Both statements are true, but they don’t begin to do justice to either’s commitment, impact and outreach in the work they do.
“If you look at the list of how many organizations Peggy is involved with, she not only is a leader of many of them, but she really serves each of them,” says Sally Katz, a longtime friend who met Cohen Voss at Temple Emanuel, to which both belong. “She does the footwork. Her goal is not just to do everything herself, but to get other people involved.
“She motivates people to help, even if they can only do so in a small way. It doesn’t have to be a giant effort. She makes room for everyone.”
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To give you an idea of her range, Cohen Voss volunteers as a program facilitator at National Council of Jewish Women-St. Louis and sits on its board. She coordinates meals at Temple Emanuel for an organization that works to alleviate food insecurity, and she writes a monthly dispatch for TE that focuses on the needs of the local refugee and international community.
And that doesn’t touch on the number of nonprofits she’s informally helped, such as the teen social justice group Cultural Leadership (now Lead STL) and HateBrakers, which works to combat bullying, racism, antisemitism and other forms of hate.
Nevertheless, Cohen Voss bristles at the notion that her volunteerism is worthy of Unsung Hero status. She says she volunteers because she can and because she is truly invested in the organizations — and the people — they assist.
“This is why I am here now,” she says. “I’m here to help others.”
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Peggy Cohen grew up in Squirrel Hill, Pa., around the corner from the Tree of Life synagogue, where the deadliest attack on any Jewish community in the U.S. took place in 2018. She and her family attended Rodef Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Pittsburgh.
She came to St. Louis to attend Washington University as an undergraduate and stayed through graduate school, finishing with a doctorate in educational psychology. After teaching appointments at universities in Albany, N.Y., and Houston, she returned to St. Louis and married Bernhard Voss, a teacher, union carpenter and accomplished craftsman whom she had been dating for several years. He was 17 years her senior and had a 16-year-old son.
Cohen Voss took a tenure-track assistant professor job at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. For more than 30 years, she held various positions there, though she’s most proud of being the founding director of UMSL’s Center for Teaching and Learning, now in its 25th year.
“As faculty, we are all trained to be researchers,” Cohen Voss says. “But we’re not trained to be teachers. We don’t think it takes any effort to teach. You just stand up and go through your notes and talk.
“So that’s why we started the center on campus in 2000. We made the case for why we need to put some energy into helping faculty do all their jobs better, not just the research component.”
When Voss retired from UMSL in 2014, her title was associate provost for professional development, but she is quick to mention that she always taught. Teaching, clearly, is a passion.
So is her family. She and Bernhard Voss had a son, Jeremy, now 40, who lives with his wife and five children outside Monsey, N.Y.
Sadly, 14 months into Cohen Voss’ retirement, Bernhard Voss passed away unexpectedly. Devastated, Cohen Voss was unsure what to do next.
Eventually, she found her way to NCJWSTL’s 12-week Wife, Widow, Woman program.
“I got so much out of it,” she says. “Aside from the support of the people who would become my friends and whom I still have dinner with once a month, an understanding of grief, an understanding of who I am in this new world and how I am going to live in this new world.”
So profound was the program on Cohen Voss that now she is one of its facilitators.
Patty Croughan, who also serves as a facilitator for the program, says, “Peggy brings her own life experience, empathy, thoughtfulness and caring to women facing enormous challenges of grief and transition. She is a gift to our community.”
One thing Cohen Voss has realized since retiring a decade ago is how much satisfaction she gets from volunteering. So when she was introduced three years ago to Riz Khan, who along with his wife, Farah Alam, run Little Angels Foundation, Cohen Voss knew she wanted to help. Little Angels provides nutritious, home-cooked meals to children, refugees, immigrants and the homeless.
“It’s a beautiful mission,” says Cohen Voss, who since 2022 has mobilized Temple Emanuel congregants to help prepare trays of vegetarian pasta and homemade cookies, which she then delivers to Little Angels twice a month.
“Her tireless work, even in the harshest weather conditions, demonstrates her exceptional commitment and resilience,” Khan says. “Her warm demeanor and positive attitude uplifts everyone around her, inspiring others to contribute and get involved.
“Her leadership has significantly increased the number of volunteers and the amount of food we can provide, enabling us to increase our impact and reduce hunger in the community.”
According to friend and fellow Temple Emanuel congregant Betsy Cohen, Cohen Voss is all about “lifting up newcomers” and helping new Americans acclimate to St. Louis.
“Peggy is the temple’s representative to the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Jewish Coalition for Racial Equity and Jewish Coalition for New Americans,” Cohen says. “She has built on her international interest by arranging for a series of Friday night speakers at Temple Emanuel to educate the congregation on refugees coming to St. Louis.”
In addition, she says, Cohen Voss is a big supporter of Welcome Neighbor, which helps refugees get started in our community. “Through the organization, she organized a lunch where Afghan women cooked and brought lunch to TE for more than 30 congregants who paid to support these new arriving women to St. Louis,” Cohen says.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Cohen Voss also writes a monthly column for the temple’s newsletter in which she details “most needed” items for refugee organizations like the International Institute. Congregants can either buy these items off an online donation list or bring them directly to the temple. Then Cohen Voss takes them to the International Institute, so they can benefit the newly arriving families who come to the U.S. with nothing more than their backpacks.
“This is so valuable and meaningful to the families and to our community to be of service,” Cohen says. “Peggy is the motivator and catalyst that makes it happen.”
As for Cohen Voss, she says it’s all very simple: Volunteering and being able to give back make her happy.
“It’s hard to describe how aware I am of feeling joyful when I take things down to International Institute, or when I move things from the oven and bring them to the Little Angels Foundation,” she says. “It’s a happiness that is so fulfilling.”
Peggy Cohen Voss
Age: 73
Home: Richmond Heights
Family: Peggy is a widow with one adult son, one adult stepson and seven grandchildren.
Fun fact: As a teenager, Peggy lived across the street from Fred Rogers, host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
