Cornell Heroes

Spotlighting Cornell teams who serve the Cornell community as unsung heroes everyday!

Cornell Heroes Recognition Campaign. Recognizing and celebrating teams for exceptional commitment and work well done! Sponsored by the Division of the Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer (VPCHRO) Recognition Team. Working at Cornell: Pursue Excellence, Discover Success.

So much of the work of this university goes on behind the scenes. And, it is the work of teams – smart people who come together for the betterment of this community and communities all over the world – that makes Cornell great.

What is the Cornell Heroes Recognition Campaign?

Great work happens everywhere, everyday in various capacities that often go unnoticed during daily operations. Cornell Heroes is an annual campaign designed spotlight working groups or teams outside a formal awards process. Team recommendations are curated by Human Resource partners from colleges and units as well as sent in recommendations from any colleague across campus.

Groups being recognized will be celebrated with a customized event, a small gift on behalf of central Human Resources, and exciting raffle prizes. Plus, promotion of their achievements to the Cornell community. 

Meet the Cornell Heroes of 2023!

THANK YOU TO  ALL THE MEMBERS OF THESE CAMPUS TEAMS: YOU ARE CORNELL HEROES!

College of Veterinary Medicine Facilities Team

Your team is being recognized for your ongoing and creative problem solutions to space planning. For day-to-day activities that keep safety and scholarly activities at the highest priority. For your remarkable efforts made during the fire at the Vet Research Center in July and for your quick and decisive action in early January when a generator failed to ensure the safety of the community. Finally – the time and dedication you have given to the nights, early mornings, and weekends to address the myriad of unforeseen immediate needs.

Alumni Affairs and Development - Office of Prospect Development Team

Your team is being recognized for working behind the scenes to support frontline fundraising, strategic research, pipeline analysis and portfolio management to over 80 gift officers in Alumni Affairs and Development. Within the last year they have discovered 391 new prospects, completed over 1,000 gift officer portfolio changes and completed 75 portfolio reviews per year. This team’s efforts serve the community by identifying the Cornell donors of tomorrow and providing insights for future fundraising strategy. This group successfully keeps their eyes on a wealth of information that is imperative to the division. They are, unsung heroes.

Center for Animal Resources and Education (CARE)

Your team is being recognized for your daily commitment to the highest level of quality animal care and veterinary services, even while dealing with the ever-changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic. Your contributions to the education, training and support of researchers, staff and students for their animal experimentation. Promotion of best practices for the responsible use of animals in research. The merging of quality science and animal welfare for the benefit of human and animal health and your continued high-quality service and support to the animals and research community especially during short staffing challenges.

Environment, Health, and Safety Team

EH&S is being recognized for the efforts made everyday to keep this campus safe. From research safety, to fire protection, Environmental Compliance to Emergency Services and Occupational health and safety your team covers it all. All day, every day you are the unsung heroes that keep us safe. Thank you!

Digital Design and Fabrication Studio

The Digital Design and Fabrication Studio (D2FS) provides a suite of state-of-the-art equipment for constructing and modeling projects and is available for use by students and faculty for instruction and research activities. Resources include a wood shop, electronics studio, assembly studio, paint room, laser studio, and 3D print studio. The D2FS Team is being recognized for playing a critical role in transforming students’ creativity and faculty scholarship to the forms of fashion, art, and interface that we can see, touch, and interact with. For helping students realize sophisticated, interactive, and intelligent prototypes by providing expert guidance and technical support. Also, assisting with material selections, sourcing of materials, and manual and digital fabrication and finishing of interactive prototypes. Lastly, this team went above and beyond in response to the pandemic by laser-cutting mask fabric and 3D printing face shields when PPE was not readily available.

Revisit the Cornell Heroes from 2022

Cornell Health

For their heroic efforts in taking care of our students during the pandemic: delivering food, medication, checking on mental and physical health, transporting students to hotels and all their efforts to help our students during the pandemic.

College of Veterinary Medicine

For their commitment to animal health: The Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) and Cornell University Hospital for Animals (CUHA) staff continued coming into the hospital and diagnostic lab every day to care for the animals of our community.

The COVID19 Testing Labs and Testing sites: for their commitment and dedication to rapidly creating and implementing testing procedures for our students, faculty, and staff. Their heroic efforts served our entire community and provided insights that successfully guided Cornell to continue our mission through an unprecedented crisis.

Facilities and Campus Services

Although many employees worked from home during the past two years,  our campus still needed maintenance and attention. In addition to regular maintenance, facilities teams took on new challenges, changing air filtration systems in buildings, conducting floor-to-ceiling sanitation protocols, and then preparing campus for students to return.  CUPD continued to maintain the safety of our campus, students, faculty, and staff through every up and down of the pandemic.

Cornell Dining

In addition to quickly transitioning ways to provide meals to our students safely during the pandemic, they moved forward to open new dining facilities in our new residence halls. As our campus jumped from hybrid to in-person our dining team nimbly pivoted to accommodate changing food service protocols.

Cornell Housing

Already providing a home away from home for students, this group saved the day and provided mental, emotional, and physical support to students through every step of their journey leaving and returning to campus. They filled the gaps with other units that accommodated new COVID projects, support, and protocols being put in place.