William Jelani Cobb is an American writer, author, educator, and the Dean of the Columbia Journalism School. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015. His academic and journalistic work specializes in post-Civil War African-American history, 20th-century American politics, and the history of the Cold War.

Before becoming Dean, Cobb joined Columbia University in 2016 as the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism.