For more than a year, Professors Pat Cassano and Kelly Musick have been leading the Division of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Policy Analysis and Management, respectively, on an interim basis. Recently, they were appointed to these leadership roles on a full-term basis.

Patricia A. Cassano: Director, Division of Nutritional Sciences

Patricia A. Cassano, professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, began her role as director of the Division on July 1 after serving as Interim Director for more than a year. She is appointed to the directorship for the next three years.

“It is both an honor and a privilege to work on behalf of the faculty, staff and students in the Division,” Cassano said . “I look forward to advancing the mission and vision of the Division to address the most pressing challenges in nutrition and health through excellence in research, education and public engagement.”

Joining the Division in 1989, Cassano is a chronic disease epidemiologist with a research program that focuses on nutritional genomics and a specialized expertise in the etiology of respiratory diseases. During her time at Cornell, she has distinguished herself as an administrative leader and an influential epidemiologist and served as the Division’s Associate Director from 2015 prior to her appointment to interim director.

She is also a professor of healthcare policy and research at Weill Medical College, director of Graduate Studies for the minor field of epidemiology in the Cornell University Graduate School, Director of Cochrane U.S. Cornell University and she leads the WHO/Cochrane/Cornell University Summer Institute for Systematic Reviews in Nutrition for Global Policy Making.

Kelly Musick: Chair, Policy Analysis and Management

Kelly Musick, professor of Policy Analysis and Management (PAM), has taken on the role of chair of the PAM department, an appointment that also began on July 1. She served as the department’s interim chair last year overseeing department administration.

“I’m honored to serve as PAM’s Chair and work with my colleagues to further the department’s impact in research and teaching,” Musick said. “Building on conversations with faculty, I have three goals as I begin my term: expand the scope of our policy research and teaching, encourage collaborative research through grant development and partnership with social science centers, and promote diversity in our faculty and graduate programs through coordinated training opportunities and fellowships.”

Musick, who also serves as the director of the Cornell Population Center, was on the sociology faculty at the University of Southern California before moving to Cornell in 2008. Her research focuses on family change and social inequality, publishing on women’s childbearing intentions, the quality and stability of cohabiting relationships, social class differences in family life, parenting, and the mechanisms linking family environments and child well-being.

“Our faculty are leaders in the field, doing cutting-edge work on critical policy questions in the areas of family and social welfare, health, and regulatory policy,” she said. “PAM’s land grant mission, our excellence in empirical social science research, and our distinctive strengths in sociology and demography uniquely position the department to address pressing 21st-Century challenges—and to contribute to new, university-wide initiatives in the social sciences.”