Gen Meredith
By 2030, Dhaka, Bangladesh is projected to experience dramatic increases in flooding and an average of 65 days per year of extreme heat. There are over 3,000 apparel factories in Bangladesh, whose workers and production are increasingly threatened by climate change, in the form of the high temperatures and extreme flooding. “Climate change is already negatively impacting worker livelihoods and industry sustainability,” said Sarosh Kuruvilla, the Andrew J. Nathanson Family Professor in Industrial and Labor Relations in the ILR School. “The global fashion industry urgently needs to adapt, to protect worker health and long-term earnings…
A new Enteric Disease Outbreak Data Analysis Training course is available! This interactive, self-study course, based on a 2-day tabletop simulation, is designed for local health department staff and provides training on how to gather and analyze data in an event-based enteric disease outbreak investigation. The modules cover the foundations of creating line lists, epidemic curves, case definitions, and performing data analysis for a cohort study. Modules can also be used as a refresher or for just-in-time training during outbreak investigations. We also show how to calculate measures of disease frequency…
To ready New York State communities for the rapidly evolving impacts of climate change, we created a Climate Disaster Health Policy Lab. This novel framework integrates analysis of community needs with product delivery in one center, enabling preparation and accelerating response. We partner with organizations having statewide impact (county- and state-level public health, emergency management, and Cooperative Extension staff), focusing on climate disasters with significant health impacts (e.g., extreme heat, cold, wildfire smoke). The project bridges the gap between researchers and practitioners, positioning Cornell Public Health as a leader in the climate and disaster space, while improving the lives of New Yorkers…
From the bench to the clinic to the field, our faculty are making discoveries that help make a healthier world for animals and people. Check out some of their recently published research.
Dr. Gen Meredith, Associate Professor and Associate Director of Cornell Public Health, first discovered the field of public health 25 years ago, while looking for a way to improve social justice. Since then, she has shown a deep commitment to identifying and exploring barriers to health access, and working with local experts to envision and test feasible and sustainable strategies that achieve positive impacts. To support this outcome, much of Dr. Meredith’s work focuses on optimizing public health systems and processes to help equip the public health workforce with both skills and confidence. This approach proved especially valuable during COVID-19, when U.S. public health systems…
Despite clear benefits to children’s physical and mental health, focus, academic success, and encouraging sustainability behaviors, integrating consistent outdoor time into school activities can be challenging. In a research project following 17 teachers from upstate New York, a Cornell team explored if and how teachers were able to use the green space in their elementary schoolyard, generating results that could help provide children with consistent access to natural spaces. The work, supported by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, the Cornell Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, and the Cornell Master of Public Health program, was published on Dec 3 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health…
Faculty from the Department of Public & Ecosystem Health in the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, in partnership with the University of Pretoria in South Africa, have received an NIH P20 grant to establish the Center for Transformative Infectious Disease Research on Climate, Health and Equity in a Changing Environment (C-CHANGE). Climate change is dramatically increasing both the spread of diseases carried by mosquitos and ticks and the risk of new viruses spilling over from animals into people. “To have the greatest health impacts, we must pivot from reactively responding to outbreaks to proactively understanding the social and environmental conditions that increase risk of outbreaks,” says Dr…
For decades, public health systems in many parts of the world have been under-equipped. In response, government and partner organizations are working to ensure integrated and adaptive systems, and to expand the skilled workforce to meet growing demands. Universities have long been key partners in these efforts to strengthen public health systems, focusing on public health education, workforce capacity building, and applied and engaged research and practice for discovery, innovation, and health impacts. “Since our founding, Cornell Public Health has made a commitment to strengthening public health systems by designing an engaged public health…
Faculty and staff within Cornell’s Department of Public & Ecosystem Health have been funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce to help strengthen the public health system in the United States. As part of the National Partners Cooperative Agreement, the recipient organizations will receive a part of the $176 million in funding for the first year of a five-year-cycle. “This partnership is critical because it amplifies our collective impacts on pressing public health challenges in New York State and around the nation,” says Dr. Alexander Travis, director of Cornell Public Health and founding chair of the Department of…
As a registered nurse and director of patient services for the Chautauqua County Health Department in western New York, Wendy Douglas conducted case investigations and monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience laid bare the disparities public health departments are designed to address but not all workers are equipped to encounter. “Very few of our health department’s employees have any public health background when they start working here, and it sometimes shows,” Douglas said. “For example, there can be a lack of understanding of health equity.” The issue is nationwide in scale. On-the-job experience is the only source of public health training for most professionals in governmental agencies. Only…
Recent global events have underscored a pressing truth: our ever-expanding interactions with the natural world can lead to unforeseen health challenges. At the juncture of urban development, climate change and health concerns, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic raised the necessity to strengthen our public health infrastructure. Through its new Public Health Essentials online certificate program, Cornell seeks to help leaders proactively address today’s global health challenges. “COVID-19 came and showed us that our public health workforce was underprepared and that our public health systems were not equipped to detect and respond to an emerging pandemic,” said Gen Meredith, associate professor of…
In reaction to the COVID pandemic, faculty of the Cornell’s Public Health Program developed an innovative online training program to help close skills gaps in the public health workforce. Fifteen months and 521 participants later, the program has proven a huge success: 94% of the surveyed learners report gaining skills and knowledge that they can apply directly to their work, and 86% developed a better understanding of public health. Decades of underfunding have left the public health workforce understaffed and unequipped to deliver the array of services expected of them. There is no required, standard exam to join the public health workforce, or a state or local health department, and among government public health…