Working Together to Change the World
Cornell University offers a campus-wide Master of Public Health (MPH) Program to help build public health leaders who are inspired and trained to ensure the health of people, animals, and the world in which we live.
Our program is founded on three pillars—Sustainability, Equity, and Engagement—that inform our approach to teaching, research, service, and practice. Our small class sizes and engaged-learning approach give our students uncommon flexibility in developing the skills they need to make an impact in their desired careers. And, by working with community partners, our students turn theory into practice while preparing to become future leaders of the public health workforce.
Our Curriculum
Our core curriculum provides students with the skills, tools, and foundational knowledge to become general public health practitioners, while our concentration courses allow our students to become specialists in their chosen field.
News & Impacts
Shaping extreme heat policy
Despite the danger and death toll of heat-related disasters in the U.S., the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has never declared a heat wave an emergency. The reason is twofold: a lack of real-time data on the impacts of extreme heat, and a lack of clarity on how to mitigate those impacts.
“When extreme heat events happen, they are acute emergency disasters,” says Dr. Amie Patchen, Lecturer and Chief of the Environment, Climate & Health Concentration for Cornell Public Health. “These disasters cause at least hundreds of deaths each year,” adds Dr…
Alumni in Action: Avni Patel
Avni Patel ‘22 was committed to advancing social justice as an MPH student, and was determined to continue doing so through a career in health policy. After graduation, Patel began working with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Legislative Affairs Office as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF)—a highly prestigious leadership program with the U.S. government.
After completing a rotation on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health, Patel’s next rotation was in the White…
See how a deadly bird flu season impacted wildlife on remote Antarctic islands
Bird flu has crept uncomfortably close to home in recent months. Public health experts have detected nearly five dozen known infections of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in people in the U.S. Dairy farmers are approaching a full year of exposure to the virus in their herds. And more than 100 million birds in U.S. poultry farms have been lost to the pathogen or killed in attempts to stop its spread since February 2022.
Meanwhile the type of H5N1 virus that has been spreading, known as clade…