The Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, launched in fall 2021, harnesses the university’s wide-ranging expertise in public policy teaching, research and engagement into a shared academic home, offering new and expanded undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and professional public policy courses and degrees. Established and new policy-focused institutes and programs boost the Brooks School’s scholarship and outreach activities. The school’s faculty, with expertise in every region of the world, apply a global, interdisciplinary and solution-oriented focus to a broad set of public policy issues.

Building upon existing and developing academic strengths at Cornell, the school’s core areas of focus include data science and technology policy; environmental and sustainability policy; health policy; human security; the politics and economics of development; race, racism and public policy; and social policy and inequality.

About Jeb E. Brooks and Cherie Wendelken

Jeb E. Brooks, MBA ’70, his wife, Cherie Wendelken, and the Brooks Family Foundation provided the generous support to name the school. Jeb was an early advocate for socially responsible investment whose late father taught at Cornell and whose Cornell roots span three generations. Cherie holds a PhD in architectural history from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Harvard University professor. In 1999, Jeb and Cherie established the Brooks Family Foundation, which focuses on health care, underserved children and the environment.