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Dear Friends of CIHF,

Happy New Year! As we welcome the New Year, we usher in change and also welcome several new people to the Institute. Alex Susskind is stepping down as Associate Director as he has accepted a new role as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Hotel Administration. Congratulations Alex and thank you for your many contributions as Associate Director this past year. We look forward to continuing to work with you in your new capacity. 
We warmly welcome Heather Kolakowski in her new role as Associate Director. We are very happy Heather is taking on a leadership role as she brings a holistic hospitality perspective. She is a lecturer in food and beverage management at the School of Hotel Administration, teaching several food and beverage courses, including Restaurant Management and Hunger, Health and Nonprofit Social Enterprise. Heather is also the faculty advisor for Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC), the student-run hospitality showcase conference which allows students the opportunity to put theory into practice while taking on leadership responsibilities each spring.  With her background in business management, culinary arts, food justice work and hospitality, Heather will be an integral member of our team. Please see Heather’s full biography below in our news section.

We also welcome Nikki Cerra as Program Manager and Ellie Valenzuela-Mendoza as Program Assistant. Nikki comes to us with 15 years of managerial experience, most recently from the Cornell Botanic Gardens as the Horticulture Program Manager. She has a Master of Landscape Architecture and her interests lie in the human nature connection and how we can create places that positively influence people’s well-being and interactions with their surroundings. Ellie recently moved to the Ithaca area from Iowa State University, where she worked as the Academic Program Assistant in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Ellie has a doctorate in American Studies, with interests in literature, ethics and social justice. She has extensive experience in customer service, building relationships, managing deadlines and planning events. Ellie and Nikki are excited to join our team and support our mission.
 
 We also thank Brenda Smith for all the organization and creativity she brought to our institute as the Program Manager and look forward to her work this year in her new part-time role as Senior Advisor. With our new team in place, we are ready for a new year of creating healthy futures. Thank you for all you do to support this important work.
Improving service excellence in healthcare, senior living, and wellness related organizations
Teaching | Research | Engagement | Membership
NEWS
Heather Kolakowski, Hotel '00, Named New Associate Director for CIHF
Heather Kolakowski is a lecturer in food and beverage management at the School of Hotel Administration (SHA). She teaches several food and beverage courses, including Restaurant Management and Contemporary Healthy Foods. Kolakowski has also taught at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. Her courses included Beverage Operations Management, Spirits and Principles of Mixology, Advanced Principles of Service in Hospitality Management, Introductory Table Service in the dining room of St. Andrew’s Café, and Formal Hospitality and Service Management in the American Bounty Restaurant on the CIA campus.
These front-of-the-house classes review the principles of fine service and hospitality in a restaurant setting, emphasizing customer service, beverages including wine and spirits, restaurant trends, and sales. In addition to her service classes, she has also taught the elective Women in Leadership.
 
A 2000 graduate of SHA and a 2002 graduate of the CIA, Kolakowski returned to her culinary alma mater in 2008 after serving as food and beverage manager for the Four Seasons Hotel Company in Washington, D.C. and Jackson Hole, WY. Her additional professional experience includes assistant manager for the Peninsula Grille in Warrington, PA, and teaching assistant at both the CIA and Cornell University.
 
Awarded an MBA at SUNY Empire State College in December 2013, Kolakowski is also a member of the Women’s Foodservice Forum, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, the United States Bartender’s Guild Association, and the Cornell Hotel Society. Kolakowski is a Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) and certified TIPS responsible alcohol service instructor.
Brooke Hollis Selected for Cornell University Presidential Award for Employee Excellence
CIHF Executive Director Brooke Hollis, has been chosen for the Cornell University President's Award for Employee Excellence. Brooke was recognized with the Game Changer Award for his role in the creation of CIHF. This award is given to employees who excel in in their role in both skills and performance, and who developed and implemented a new idea or approach. Brooke's work as part of the team that created CIHF is recognized as innovate and creative.

“It is an honor to be recognized and this honor is truly a reflection of everyone on our amazing CIHF team—this includes our in-house leaders, our past/current governing body, advisory board and so many others who have made CIHF possible” - Brooke Hollis

Digital Transformation Hackathon Winning Teams
Changing Business, Changing Education, Changing Lives
The Cornell University Healthy Futures Graduate Club collaborated with the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business to host the Digital Transformation Hackathon on November 30 - December 2 on Cornell's Ithaca campus.

We are living in an unprecedented period of digital transformation in all facets of life. The speed and extent of transformation is leading to enormous disruptions in established practices of business, politics, education, healthcare, and everyday life around the world.

Future leaders in business, education, health, hospitality, and design will need to develop creative, interdisciplinary, and sustainable solutions to meet these challenges. The Hackathon provided real-world challenges to help future leaders hone these skills.

Everyone who competed was a winner - the innovation, creativity, and collaborative spirit were inspiring.

Thank you to our wonderful s ponsors, mentors, speakers,and judges. To read more about the event, please visit the event website. Link to event website.
Grand Prize Winner (Health Vertical) - Wavex

This team developed a solution for the opiod crisis by making pain diagnostics objective rather than subjective. They created a pain diagnostic ecosystem for people in pain that included: a device that objectively measures pain (EEG), a health monitoring app connected to the EEG, and a medication adherence device controlled by doctors. Team members included Dayan Garmaev, Samuael Mbgua, Nancy Peng, and Mahum Siddiqi.
Top Prize Winner (Health Vertical) -
Life Hacks

This team addressed obesity in truck drivers by developing an in-game app-concept for a social fitness and education platform to encourage healthy fitness behaviors. Team members included Won Young Choi, Alexander Lee, and Kathy Wong.
Top Prize Winner (Business Vertical) -
RMG Life

This team developed a concept for a next generation app focused on long term budgeting for graduate school students. Team members included Gyurme Karma, Ryan Lee, and Melanie Roberts.
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Sloan Team Captures Second Consecutive Top Prize in HIMSS Case Competition  

Defining the Future of Transformative Care Today
Congratulations to the Sloan Program in Health Administration team, Jean Marte , Maddie Haftel , and Anand Chaudhari , who won the second annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) student case competition . They will present at the HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida this coming February as part of their award.
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Montefiore Medicine, a CIHF Founding Member, recognized in the Wall Street Journal

Hotel-Style Hospitality Comes to Hospitals: Facilities refocus efforts on patient needs; better signage, upgraded technology, empathy training
By Melanie Grayce West, Dec. 16, 2018 9:00 a.m. ET 
"The friendly touches at a luxury hotel aren’t normally expected at a busy Bronx hospital. But that is exactly what Marcello Khattar of Montefiore Health System is trying to do—put a little of the hotel experience into the health-care setting."

"Public scores on patient-satisfaction surveys conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have made some hospitals sensitive to refocusing efforts on patient needs, according to Brooke Hollis, the associate director of the Sloan Program in Health Administration at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology. Those scores are tied to reimbursements, meaning the better a hospital does on room cleanliness or nurse communication, for example, the higher the potential reimbursement."

CIHF Founding Advisory Board Member representative from Montefiore Medicine, Melissa Ceriale, was instrumental in the adoption of hospitality approaches at Montefiore Medicine.

Read more in the WSJ article link. You may need to be a WSJ subscriber to read the article.
"Marcello Khattar, a long-time hotel executive, aims to improve the customer experience at Montefiore Health Systems in the Bronx, New York. Mr. Khattar is a Director of Patient Experience and Customer Service at Montefiore. YANA PASKOVA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL."
CIHF Panel @ Entrepreneurship Celebration
Health and Hospitality Innovation: International Applications
April 12, 2019
Ithaca, New York
CIHF will host a panel discussion at the annual Entrepreneurship At Cornell conference. The topic will be around international examples and strategies for implementing hospitality in healthcare organizations. The panelists will also be asked to comment on design and infrastructure issues in implementing programs internationally. 


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CIHF Roundtable: N ature, Health and Wellness
April 26, 2019
Ithaca, New York
CIHF will host its fourth Roundtable event in Ithaca New York. The topics will range from how interactions with nature can positively impact a person's well-being to how landscapes and cities can be designed to foster human and nature connections, while improving quality of life.

We are busy developing the event, and more information will be available soon! Check our website for updates.

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WX: New York Women Executives in Real Estate
Panel Discussion
March 11, 2019 4:30 to 6:30 PM
Statler Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
WX, in association with the Cornell Center for Real Estate and Finance and Cornell Real Estate Women, presents WX: New York Women Executives in Real Estate Panel Discussion. WX is an invitation-only association of executive-level women actively engaged in the commercial real estate industry in New York. WX’s diverse membership includes owners, developers, brokers, architects, engineers, bankers, and lawyers. Distinguished executives from the association will share their experiences and strategies for achieving success, as well as some of the unique challenges they have faced as women working in the industry.

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HR in Hospitality Conference & Expo
March 25 - 27, 2019
Las Vegas, Nevada
From March 25 to 27, the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations will be leading the 13th Annual HR in Hospitality Conference at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. We are busy planning the content and every other aspect of the event, more details coming soon! 

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4th Annual Titans of Real Estate
April 19, 2019 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Cipriani, 42nd Street, New York City
Join us at Cipriani, 42nd St, in New York City on Friday, April 19, 2019 from 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. for the Fourth Annual Titans of Real Estate, hosted by the Center for Real Estate and Finance at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Richard Baker ’88 of Hudson’s Bay Company will step out from behind the podium this year to participate as a panelist with Ken Himmel ’70 of Related Urban to share their perspective on mixed-use properties and redevelopment. Audience members will be treated to a rare look inside the planning, design and construction elements of these self-sustaining cities within metropolitan areas around the globe. Marty Burger, P ’17 and P ’20, CEO of Silverstein Properties, Inc. will moderate the much-anticipated event. Registration information can be found at the event website.

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Corporate Membership

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.

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.

We are pleased to welcome new affiliates who recently joined CIHF.
Academic Scholar
Dr. Susan Baker
Professor Emerita
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Susan P. Baker, MPH, ScD (hon.), DHL, is professor emerita at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. An injury epidemiologist, her research topics over the past 60 years have included transportation safety, occupational safety, and aviation safety, as well as suffocation, drowning, burns, and poisoning. Prevention of injury to children has been a major focus: her research provided the evidence for passage of child passenger protection laws.

Founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, she developed the widely used Injury Severity Score. Her publications include The Injury Fact Book and more than 250 articles in scientific journals. Graduates have developed injury prevention centers and programs all over the world and have advocated for changes in regulations, practices, and the designs of injury-producing products and environments.

Academic Scholar
Dr. Giovanni Sogari
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Parma
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, "CONSUMEHeath" Project
Visiting Fellow, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Giovanni earned an M.S. in Food Science from the Universita Di Parma,and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Universita Cattolica of Piacenza. He is currently a visiting Fellow at Cornell University and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Parma. In 2017 he was granted a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship to spend two years at Cornell University, to conduct research under the supervision of Prof. Miguel Gomez and Rohit Verma. Following his study at Cornell, Giovanni will complete his research at the University of Parma under the supervision of Prof. Cristina Mora. The objective of his project “CONSUMEHealth. Using consumer science to improve healthy eating habits” is to understand what drives consumers to make healthier food choices and provide evidence-based recommendations for stakeholders and policy makers.

His other main research interests are in consumers' behavior about healthy diet, fruit and vegetable consumption, Geographical Indications, GMOs, wine market, sustainability in the fish industry, novel food and edible insects. If you would like to keep up with his research activities, Giovanni invites you to visit his blog - giovannisogari.com .


Academic Scholar
Dr. Courtney Suess-Raeisinafchi
Assistant Professor
Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences,
College of Agriculture; and
Faculty Fellow
Center for Health Systems Design,
College of Architecture
Texas A&M University

Courtney Suess-Raeisinafchi is an assistant professor of tourism and hospitality (hotel and resort) operations in the department of recreation, parks, and tourism sciences at Texas A & M University. She completed her doctor of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her primary research interest is in the planning and design of facilities and their service environments. Her dissertation addressed the strategic development of medical tourism and her current research focuses, more precisely, on environmental psychology and consumer behavior in the contexts of healthcare and hospitality environments.

Prior to graduate studies, she studied interior architecture and fine arts in architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, after which she became a project designer at Jordan Mozer and Associates, Ltd., working over 6 years for the internationally celebrated and award-winning hospitality architecture and design studio. She led projects on several international restaurants and boutique hotel renovations. After completing her graduate studies, she spent 4 years teaching hospitality design and operations management at Boston University in the School of Hospitality Administration. She published in various international journals for research on the healthcare environment’s impact on well-being, including the International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Service Industries, and Tourism Management.

Courtney is part of the editorial advisory board of the International Journal of Tourism Cities. She has been a reviewer for several international conferences and scientific journals such as International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Tourism Management, and Annals of Tourism Research.”

We are pleased to introduce Rachel Kelly, a second year student in the Sloan Program in Health Administration, MHA May '19, and the new Vice President of Marketing for the Cornell University Healthy Futures Club Graduate Chapter (CUHFG).

Rachel Kelly is currently a second-year graduate student working towards a Master Degree from the Sloan Program in Health Administration and a Minor from the Baker Program in Real Estate. Driven towards the intersection of health & wellness, hospitality, and design, Rachel views senior living as the ultimate fusion of these person-centric industries. She is passionate about service excellence and about how both physical space and programming can empower and enrich the resident, family, and staff experience. For the past two years, she was also teaching assistant for a senior living course taught by CIHF's Brooke Hollis with other supports of CIHF. The course was originally launched through the efforts of advisory board member, John Rios.

This past summer, Rachel worked at Belmont Village Senior Living in Albany, California, as the Operations Intern. Prior to graduate school, Rachel earned her Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, Health & Society, as well as a Minor in Health Policy Analysis and Management. As VP of Marketing, Rachel is excited to increase the organization’s profile at Cornell and in the health and wellness industry.

To read more about the other club officers, please visit the CUHF Graduate Chapter website.
Rachel Kelly, MHA '19
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CIHF Spring 2019 Industry Immersion Seminar Course
We are pleased to introduce the distinguished industry and academic leaders who have generously agreed to speak at our Spring Industry Immersion Seminar this year. This 1 credit-hour speaker series provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from industry leaders with proven success in the emerging industry that combines elements of hospitality and design with health, wellness, and senior living. 

Students in this course have an unparalleled opportunity to gain insights directly from senior executives as they share their views on business, managerial, career, and other critical industry-related issues. As part of the course, students have the opportunity to meet in small groups with the individual speakers. There is considerable demand for college graduates who understand the complexities of the emerging intersection of these fields and this seminar provides students the opportunities to learn first-hand from experienced practitioners and educator.
February 1 –  Paul Levesque II, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
Principal, HOLT Architects

February 8 –  David Deininger, AIA, LEEP AP, EMHL
Healthcare Facility Master Planning Consultant, 2dplanning

February 15 - John Cawley, Professor
Policy Analysis and Management, The Sloan Program in Health Administration, Cornell Institute for Public Affairs

February 22 –  Dana Beninati 
Culinary producer at The Kitchen on Food Network

March 1 –  Naomi Sachs
Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, Co-Editor, Health Environments Research & Design, Founding Director, 
Therapeutic Landscapes Network, Co-author,  Therapeutic Landscapes

March 8 – A ndrew Jenis, MD
Surgeon + Regional Vice President, US Acute Care Solutions

March 15 –  Sarajane Eisen, PhD, IIDA, EDAC Interior Designer, Eisen Interiors

March 22 –  Alan Lee, MAS
Chief Operating Officer, New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital

CIHF + DEA Minor in Healthy Futures
CIHF and the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis offer a minor in Healthy Futures open to all Cornell undergraduate students. This innovative minor— the first of its kind — provides a high caliber, trans-disciplinary education in the fields of health, hospitality, and design, and may be of particular interest to students enrolled in health, wellness, policy, and hospitality related majors, or students interested in applying their education to problem-solving in the population health and wellness space.

If your organization is interested in sponsoring a three week or longer internship for CIHF minor students, please contact us at healthy-futures@cornell.edu to learn more.

Innovating Wellbeing in Hospitality
Caitlin McKenna, Senior Director of Strategic Innovation Delivery at Hilton Worldwide , gives a talk at the CIHF seminar course (HADM/DEA 3033/6055). The speaker series provides an unique opportunity for students to learn from industry leaders.

CIHF CornellCast Videos
View 39 informative, forward-thinking, engaging interviews with industry leaders in health, hospitality & design, and roundtable discussions. CIHF CornellCast Link

CIHF Webinar Series eCornell Channel
Innovations in Health, Hospitality, Design, and Senior Living features webinars by Cornell faculty speakers on CIHF Innovations in Health, Design, and Senior Living. eCornell Subscription Link
Caitlin McKenna, Senior Director, Hilton Worldwide, CIHF Advisory Board Member