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Greetings!
The spring semester is nearing an end and we're excited to share with you highlights and accomplishments, as well as introduce you to new faces! We wished Mardelle Shepley a fond farewell as she began her retirement, held a webinar on The Culture of Wellbeing, invited speakers from across health, hospitality, and design to speak to our more than 50 seminar students, and are graduating three new minor undergraduate students. Meanwhile, our student chapter engaged with industry leaders with virtual presentations and site visits in the region.
Newsletter Highlights:
New Academic Director
Health, Hospitality, and Design Seminar Speakers
New Board Members
Culture of Wellbeing Webinar
Cornell University Healthy Futures Club Activities
Healthy Futures Minor New Graduates
CIHF Summer Course
Take a look below for updates on our students’ achievements, upcoming events, and ways to connect with CIHF!
All the best,
CIHF Leadership Team
| | CIHF Events & Announcements | | |
Academic Director Mardelle Shepley Retires,
Saleh Kalantari to join CIHF as Academic Director
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This spring Dr. Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, B.A., M.Arch., M.A., D.Arch., retired from her role as Academic Director of the CIHF and professor in the Department of Human Centered Design in the College of Human Ecology. Mardelle joined Cornell to help found the institute in 2015 and brought with her a wealth of knowledge on design in healthcare settings. She was elected Emerita Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Emerita Director of the Cornell Institute for Health Futures. Thank you, Mardelle, for more than a decade of leadership and design direction!
Joining CIHF as Academic Director on July 1 is Dr. Saleh Kalantari, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design at Cornell. Dr. Kalantari has a Ph. D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University and graduate field memberships in both the Information Science and Architecture Departments. He leads the Design and Augmented Intelligence Lab (DAIL), where his research focuses on developing digital tools to better understand the impacts of both virtual and built environments on human behavior. Dr. Kalantari's translation research has led to design awards and support from NIH and NSF, which awarded him an Faculty Early Career Development Award in 2024. We're excited to work with Saleh in the coming academic year!
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Health, Hospitality, and Design Industry Seminar
Spring 2025
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This seminar series provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from industry leaders with proven success in Health, Hospitality, and Design. Speakers share their views about successful management styles, possible career paths, critical industry-related issues, and qualities conducive to successful business leadership. The speakers are chosen for their knowledge, experience, and proven success in emerging industries that combine the elements of wellness and health. As a student in this course, you will have an unparalleled opportunity to gain insight into the emerging industry directly from senior executives.
Executive Director Heather Kolakowski and Faculty Fellow Nooshin Ahmadi co-lead the course.
| | Welcome New CIHF Advisory Board Members! | | |
Deno Adkins, FACHE
Senior Vice President, Ambulatory & Consumer Services
Cone Health
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Deno Adkins, FACHE, serves as the senior vice president, Ambulatory & Consumer Services. This includes strategy, development, and operations of outpatient facilities throughout Cone Health. Facilities include Cone Health’s MedCenters, clinics, urgent care centers, and other places that provide health
care outside of a hospital. Adkins joined Cone Health as an administrative fellow and completed his fellowship training in 2005.
Learn more about Deno here.
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Amy Silva-Magalhaes leads operations at The Bristal Assisted Living, in her role as Chief Operating Officer. Amy has 18 years of executive leadership in the senior housing industry and hospitality industry. While leading teams at some of the nation’s most well-known senior living brands, Amy has a proven record of building cohesive organizational cultures, strong teams, and highly scalable operating platforms.
Learn more about Amy here.
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The Culture of Wellbeing Webinar
A Holistic Approach to Thinking about Organizational Wellness
Spring 2025
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More than 1,300 people registered to attend the CIHF Spring Webinar on Friday, March 28. Heather Kolakowski, CIHF Executive Director and Lecturer in Food and Beverage Management, led a conversation with Ian Shea, Founder and CEO of I M Human, Kristina Workman, Senior Lecturer of the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration and CIHF Faculty Fellow, and Tricia Taylor, President of The Breakers Palm Beach, about how company culture helps to bring employees together with shared goals. Focusing on wellness can help amplify that resilience when faced with organizational challenges. Nurturing a culture of wellbeing within your organization starts with understanding the needs and key drivers of your team.
You can watch a recording of the webinar on eCornell here.
| | CUHF Students visit Upstate Medical Center | | |
On April 16, the Cornell University Healthy Futures (CUHF) student chapter had an amazing site visit to Upstate Medical Center. Students were received by CEO, and CIHF Board Member, Dr. Robert Corona, Dr. Amy Tucker, CMO, and Marylin Galimi, COO, were led on a personalized tour of the Children’s Hospital, Cancer Center, and Nappi Wellness Center. Upstate displayed how they are using technology to integrate it's campus, including by using drones to deliver pharmaceuticals and human tissues.
Are you a student looking for fun opportunities such as these? Join CUHF as they continue fostering professional growth and community connections in this dynamic field!
| | Meet our Newest Healthy Futures Minor Graduates | | |
Queen Guobadia
is graduating from the College of Human Ecology with a major in Global Development and minors in Human Centered Design and Healthy Futures.
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Isabella Suffredini
is graduating from the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration with a minor in Healthy Futures.
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Victor Wu
is graduating from Cornell University’s Brooks School of Public Policy with a Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management, with minors in Business, Inequality Studies: Health Equity, and Healthy Futures.
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DEA 1112: Change-Making – Designing Healthy and Hospitable Environments
Summer 2025 Online Course
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Looking for a unique summer course?
DEA 1112: Change-Making – Designing Healthy and Hospitable Environments is open for enrollment! This course invites you to explore how design thinking, customer service, and facility planning can transform personal and professional spaces. Dive into innovative design strategies that make an impact across industries like hospitality, healthcare, senior living, and more. Don’t miss the chance to gain multidisciplinary insights into creating environments that support well-being and functionality!
This introductory course is open to designers and non-designers alike. No artistic abilities are required.
Click here for more information or to enroll.
| | CIHF Spring Advisory Meeting | | |
On April 10, 2025, CIHF held a virtual Advisory Board Meeting. Board members joined CIHF Executive Director Heather Kolakowski and incoming Academic Director Saleh Kalantari to welcome new board members, discuss recent initiatives, and plan fall events.
Stay tuned for more information on the AI and Tech Roundtable planned for October.
Find out more about board membership here.
| | Co-authored by CIHF Faculty Fellow, Anthony Ong, Professor in the Department of Psychology | | |
Research on human well-being is divided into two distinct paradigms: hedonic and eudaimonic. The hedonic approach focuses on happiness, defined as the presence of positive emotions and the absence of negative emotions. In contrast, the eudaimonic approach emphasizes the importance of living a meaningful and purposeful life.
Read the full article here.
| | Patient-centered care in practice: hospital and online primary care settings | | Co-authored by CIHF Academic Scholar, Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Professor of Marketing at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia | | |
Drawing on value cocreation, this study examines health-care customers’ perceptions of patient-centered care (PCC) in hospital and online primary care settings. This study aims to address how are the key principles of PCC related, how the relationships between key PCC principles and outcomes (subjective well-being and service satisfaction) vary depending on the channel providing the care (hospital/online primary care) and what differences are placed on the involvement of family and friends in these different settings by health-care customers.
Read the full article here.
| | CIHF Minor and eCornell Certificate Programs | The Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures and the Department of Human Centered Design (HCD) offers a minor in Healthy Futures open to all undergraduate students. This minor provides a high caliber, transdisciplinary education in the fields of health, hospitality, and design. This innovative transdisciplinary focus has the potential to change industry practices and professional attitudes by breaking down the silos that often undermine creative solutions. This minor may be of particular interest to students enrolled in design, health, wellness, policy, and hospitality related majors, or students interested in applying their education to problem-solving in the population health and wellness space. | |
CIHF has partnered with eCornell to create 3 online certificates that focus on senior living management and healthcare facilities design:
Senior Living Management
Design Considerations for Healthcare Facilities
Healthcare Facilities Planning & Design
Information on these and other online certificates that focus on healthcare can be found at eCornell.com. If you are interested in using these programs or any of our as professional development training opportunities for your team or employees, your organziation might be eligible for corporate pricing. Please reach out to Catherine Perkins cp227@cornell.edu for further information.
| | Cornell University Healthy Futures (CUHF) | | |
Are you a student interested in becoming a member of the Cornell University Healthy Futures Chapter?
We’d love to have you join us!
| | | If you are interested in joining the chapter or have any questions, please send us an email healthy.futures.club@gmail.com. | | | | | |
Have you attended a fascinating virtual conference? Do you know of any webinars coming up that our community would be interested in? Published a paper? Earned a research grant?
If you have news to share - and we hope you do! - please email CIHF at:
healthy-futures@cornell.edu
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Follow CIHF on Social Media! | | |
At CIHF we are dedicated to building and expanding our community.
Social Media is an opportunity to reach audiences that may not come across the organization otherwise.
Follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram.
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Faculty Fellows, Academic, Industry, and
Visiting Scholars
| CIHF affiliates with Faculty Fellows from various Cornell colleges and departments, Industry Scholars from corporations and nonprofits, and Visiting Scholars and Academic Scholars from other academic institutions. Affiliates participate in collaborative activities, lead research or curriculum projects, provide feedback on strategic priorities, and create industry-focused deliverables that link hospitality, health, and design. | | Composed of senior-level leaders in industry from around the globe, Advisory Board members are representatives from Corporate Members. This diverse network collaborates with CIHF academics on projects and initiatives with a focus on integrating the fields of hospitality, health management, policy, and design. Advisory Board members participate in bi-annual meetings and conferences, as guest lecturers, speakers, and mentors to students, and as collaborators with Cornell faculty, researchers, and student groups. Membership provides a platform for industry professionals to connect, build lasting relationships, and collaborate across academia and business. | | | | |
