I remember when I heard that Cornell was establishing a new school of public policy this created quite a stir in my world and the first thing I thought about when I heard this news was I want to be a part of this. we're facing unprecedented challenges around the environment and sustainability and the climate around racism and inequality, economic inequality. I mean you name the problem and we're facing it at a level that we haven't seen in many decades if ever. this is a very exciting time to think about the positive change and impact that Cornell can have on the world around us. the creation of the new Debbie brooks school of public policy is a clear example of how we are redoubling our efforts to have a positive impact on society. Cornell deciding at this moment to create a new school of public policy is really quite extraordinary. it positions us to be able to deal with the issues that we're confronting today as a society. good public policy really comes from two sides. one is understanding how policy is rolled out what practitioners need to make sure policy is effective, but also you know good evaluation good analysis by scholars to be able to understand why certain policies fail and why certain policies succeed in the way they do. When I thought about the work that I wanted to do as an academic I thought I want to do work that's going to affect the lives of people who are struggling people who are on the margins ,people who are in need and I remember telling people that and it's like yeah right that's not exactly what academics do they write papers and those papers get published and other academics read those papers and I think for many academics scholars people who are operating in an institution like Cornell. that's not what wakes them up in the morning what wakes them up in the morning and makes them excited about their work is the hope, the potential, that that work can do something to affect real people. we're already using the tools of policy to affect people's lives it's very important to me and a core motivation in my research to make sure that we're using those policies well, and that we're creating scholarship that can inform innovation and policy making. There is a huge amount of important work we can do to improve the healthcare sector. What we'll do in our health policy work is to partner with Weill Cornell and to have a policy in health that has clinical import and can be implemented by our partners in New York. I think the brook school is you know another example of how we have the opportunity to pull together across disciplinary backgrounds and apply our skills in a more connected way that's very much in the spirit and excellence of Cornell university more broadly, to create a whole essentially that's more than the sum of its parts, to create a conversation that weaves across disciplines with different strengths. I get the opportunity to interact with sociologists and political scientists and economists well outside of my field who really give me this understanding and scope beyond what I would have gotten if I had gone into a program that did not have this interdisciplinary nature. the brook school is really the perfect place for me because Iâ€™m able to you know approach this field in a way that really is not cemented in any way, but the expertise is here for me to craft my degree and craft my research in a way that's valuable well long term. it is true that there was lots of policy work going on around campus before the start of the policy school, but it was scattered around. the brook school allows us to establish Cornell as a center for public policy in the u.s. and globally, and to establish the brook school as the center at the heart of public policy on our campus here in Ithaca. Being here at the at the start of the book school it feels like I have access to resources and outreach that I wouldn't have had otherwise, but I think most importantly we have this name which brings so many people together which we didn't have before. I think it's a real asset to us with to have policy makers, analysts, and leaders being able to say I came from the brook school and Iâ€™m making good policy. We are creating a new school that'll be around in 100 years, so everyone that is working with us right now I think has some appreciation for that, the importance but also the excitement of designing the school in a thoughtful and high-impact way.