Skip to main content

Cornell University

Public Health

Sustainability. Equity. Engagement.

About

Our Mission

student at graduation

To utilize a systems-based approach to promote equitable and sustainable advancements in the health and well-being of people in New York State and around the world.

Cornell Public Health uses a highly transdisciplinary approach that integrates understanding of the social and environmental determinants of health into our professional health practice, research, and training of public health leaders. We emphasize impact-oriented community engagement throughout our Program—in our classrooms, research, and practice—to address and improve local, regional, national, and international health issues. Every day, in all we do, we strive to change the world by promoting health and well-being for all.

Our Vision

Cornell summer students walk through a sunny Ho Plaza towards McGraw Tower.

To advance health and well-being, equitably for all people and sustainably for our planet.

We live in a world that is stressed by global‐scale changes with profound local impacts: Climate change. Pandemics. Malnutrition. Depletion of the resources and services that nature provides. Globalization. Rising inequity. Uncoordinated urban and economic development.

By recognizing that human health and environmental health are inextricably linked, Cornell Public Health seeks to promote public health through preventing problems instead of just responding to them, and in ways that can endure without harming the health of future generations.

Our Values

Top view of three kids each holding a piece of apple in the palms of their hands.

To achieve our mission and vision, we are committed to these guiding values:

  • Excellence and integrity in training, discovery, planning, and action;
  • Supporting diversity, in all its forms;
  • Promoting practices of health and well-being that are equitable across different populations and sustainable for future populations;
  • Ensuring equitable access to our education, our training, and our services;
  • Partnership in learning, training, discovery, and service with diverse individuals and communities.