Cornell has just officially launched our “To Do the Greatest Good” campaign, kicking-off a five-year goal of raising $5 billion by 2026 under three pillars: educating the next generation of leaders; tackling the world’s most pressing sustainability, health, and equity challenges; and connecting Cornell with the world.

We’re proud to be a part of this campaign and are excited about the Cornell Wildlife Health Center’s campaign-aligned mission to ensure a healthy future for wildlife, people, and the environment that supports us all. Whether we’re talking about the global climate crisis, biodiversity loss, or preventing the next pandemic, our collective future depends on how well we treat the natural world. Birthed during the early days of the pandemic in March of 2020, the Cornell Wildlife Health Center’s fundamental goal is to help humanity make more holistic, better-informed decisions, in terms of land- and ocean-use planning, public health policy, and environmental conservation.

As the founding director of the Center, I feel compelled to convey that we truly need additional help at this pivotal moment. Our critical work is completely dependent upon funding we're able to raise, and with your support, we hope to start 2022 with the ability to make significant new One Health impact investments to:

Graduate students and early-career conservation scientists frequently contact us seeking opportunities to work alongside our top-tier faculty devoted to wildlife health, public health, and environmental stewardship. Every student we have to turn away due to a lack of funding is a missed opportunity. With your support, our goal is to establish a full suite of One Health Fellowships and experiential learning opportunities that are accessible and affordable to young colleagues-to-be from the U.S. and around the world. We simply must train the next generation of One Health and conservation leaders, grounded in the broader realities of today’s global governance, environmental, socioeconomic, and equity challenges — as well as those of tomorrow.

Our focus is on real-world impact through the delivery of science-based solutions to the most important and largely interlinked challenges of our time — from climate change to environmental degradation, from emerging diseases to food insecurity, poverty, and biodiversity loss. This is reflected in our team’s ongoing work with policymakers on ways to prevent future pandemics; in our work developing ways to protect the health of flagship species such as tigers, snow leopards, elephants, and rhinos; in our shepherding of high-level policy discussions to secure some of Africa’s last great wildlife migration corridors while supporting local livelihoods, and in our work to sustain New York’s diverse wildlife resources. Funding is critically needed to endow and retain top-notch Cornell faculty who are innovators in their fields.

Drawing on our diverse team of experts who take the time needed to engage key local stakeholders, we know that strong partnerships lead to innovative ‘win-win’ solutions for wildlife, people, and planet. Connecting Cornell to the world, we work with a vast network of partners including U.S. and foreign governments, multilateral agencies, NGOs, foreign universities, and local communities — the very people who are the frontline stewards of what remains of wild nature. We believe that social and environmental equity underpin a sustainable future for all of us.

Cornell is the only Ivy League institution with a focus on wildlife health. Being based at this extraordinary institution gives us a unique comparative advantage, with our access to an unparalleled diversity of expertise and cutting-edge technological capabilities to develop holistic, long-term solutions that benefit the health of people and nature alike.

Will you help us to meet the challenges of the moment and to scale our impact at home and around the world – “to do the greatest good” – today?