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Our Mission

Elevate Home Health Care Workers

We aim to improve the status quo for undervalued and overlooked healthcare workers who provide care to people at home. Our multidisciplinary initiative seeks to elevate the value of home care workers while improving their working conditions and patient outcomes through rigorous research and community engagement.

Ariel Avgar, PhD

  • David M. Cohen ’73 Professor of Labor Relations, ILR School
  • Senior Associate Dean for Outreach and Sponsored Research
  • Director, Center for Applied Research on Work (CAROW)

Ariel Avgar is a Professor at the ILR School at Cornell University and Senior Associate Dean for Outreach and Sponsored Research.

Madeline Sterling, MD, MPH, MS

  • Associate Professor, Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine
  • Director, Initiative on Home Care and Home Health Care Workers

Dr. Madeline Sterling is a board certified general internist and a health services researcher in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Nicki Dell, PhD

  • Associate Professor, Information and Computer Science, Cornell Tech
  • Director of Technological Innovation, Initiative on Home Care and Home Health Care Workers

Nicki Dell is an Associate Professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and in the Information Science Department at Cornell University.

CAROW Affiliate Nicola Dell Named MacArthur Fellow

Cornell Chronicle
Nicola Dell has been awarded a 2024 MacArthur Foundation fellowship for her work developing technology interventions to address the needs of overlooked populations, including home health care aides and survivors of intimate partner violence.
Nicola Dell
CAROW Affiliate Nicola Dell Named MacArthur Fellow

SETS Educational Initiative Announced in Google Cyber NYC Program

Safe and Trustworthy AI in Home Health Care Work: A team including Nicola Dell, Deborah Estrin, Madeline Sterling and Ariel Avgar will investigate the trust, safety, and privacy challenges related to implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in home health care.
Cornell Tech
SETS Educational Initiative Announced in Google Cyber NYC Program

Study Finds Home Health Aides Struggle with Mental Health

Cornell Chronicle
Home health aides (HHAs) are vulnerable to stress, isolation and depressive symptoms, which impact their own health as well as their patients’ desire to age in place, according to new research co-authored by Professor Ariel Avgar.
A tired Black nurse looks out a window
Study Finds Home Health Aides Struggle with Mental Health
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Contact Us

reach out to our team

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homecarework@cornell.edu