Gen Meredith
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…
When wildfires draped heavy smoke over much of the state this summer, nearly half of all New York counties lacked real-time information to determine air quality. Now, a Cornell researcher is leading an effort to install air-quality sensors in 28 upstate counties where there were none. As of late October, the expansion effort – a partnership between the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) – is nearly complete. “When the wildfire smoke hit New York, I received questions from partners around the state,” said Alistair Hayden, assistant professor of practice in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health…
Gen Meredith, professor of practice in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Public and Ecosystem Health and associate director of the Cornell Master of Public Health (MPH) Program, has received the 2023 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship from the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement. The award, which was established in 2002 and comes with a $5,000 prize, recognizes faculty achievements in creating challenging community-engaged learning opportunities for their students. “Over the last five years, the MPH team has fostered more than 100 project partners, developed 12 community-engaged learning courses and delivered more than 200 resources to community partners…
The Pandemic Response Officer (PRO) Program was first launched in 2020 by Cornell’s COVID-19 Response Team. Co-led by the MPH Program’s associate director, Dr. Gen Meredith, the campus-wide initiative set out to limit transmission and ensure that any Cornellian with COVID-19 would feel supported. “Early on,” says Dr. Meredith, “Cornell Health managed all the student cases, and the PRO Program really focused on employees.” But when the Delta variant hit in the fall of 2021 and cases spiked among students, “the PRO Program quickly expanded to cover student cases, so Cornell Health could focus on clinical care during the surge.” By hiring, training, and supervising 25 MPH students as Pandemic Response Officers, the…
In late spring of 2020, after campus shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group formed at Cornell to plan for the potential reopening of campus in the fall. “Reopening was predicated on understanding behavioral surveillance data,” says emergency preparedness and response expert Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, adjunct faculty with the MPH Program and a key member of this planning group. The capacity of the Animal Health Diagnostic Center to develop and perform campus wide COVID-19 diagnostic surveillance testing was also crucial to the reopening plan. MPH faculty, students, and alumni spearheaded efforts to monitor the behaviors, knowledge and attitudes of Cornell community members across campus, using multiple surveys…
Since its inception, the MPH Program has been dedicated to working hand-in-hand with public health organizations to support their needs. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed health departments across the state, national assessments showed that many public health agencies would benefit from more formal training and support. “It has long been known that the public health system in the U.S. was under strain,” says the Cornell MPH Program’s associate director, Dr. Gen Meredith. “Our Program developed a community-engaged approach because research shows it can build up the capacity—and impact—of our public health partners on the ground.” In the middle of the second wave of COVID-19…