Cornell University

Graduate SchoolGraduate School

Graduate SchoolFields of Study

Public Policy

Field Description

The graduate field of public policy trains the next generation of scholars and professionals to address pressing U.S. and global public policy issues. We focus on substantive policy areas–ranging from education and health to environmental and social policy–with advanced training in social science disciplines, empirical methods, and multi-disciplinary approaches to the study and practice of public policy.

For more information, check the public policy website

Doctoral program.

Building upon the academic strengths of the Brooks School of Public Policy, the core areas of focus in the Ph.D. program include data science and technology policy; education policy; environmental and sustainability policy; demography and family policy; human security; health policy; inequality and social policy; the politics and economics of development; race, racism, and public policy; and regulatory policy. Our program combines a focus on substantive policy areas with advanced training in a social science discipline, empirical methods, and expertise on substantive policy topics. Across these specializations, Public Policy Ph.D. students graduate with the skills to shape and evaluate policy in a range of careers, from faculty positions in academic institutions to leadership roles in the public and private sectors.

Professional master's degree program.

The Master of Health Administration program (Sloan Program) is a prescribed two-year program designed to prepare individuals for administrative careers in health care settings such as hospitals, management consulting firms, private industry, government agencies, health care delivery systems, long-term care, and mental health and social welfare agencies. Students complete requirements in health services administration and selected electives in functional areas such as finance, marketing, information systems, and human resource management.

M.H.A./M.B.A. dual degree program.

The Master in Health Administration/Master in Business Administration program is offered in conjunction with the Sloan Program in Health Administration and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. This dual degree provides students interested in health management and desiring in-depth training in the general field of business administration an opportunity to pursue both an M.H.A. and an M.B.A. simultaneously.

For further information, check the Sloan Program in Health Administration website.

Contact Information

Website: https://publicpolicy.cornell.edu/studying-at-brooks/phd-program/phd/
Email: policy-phd@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-7770

2301 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and Degrees

Executive Health Administration

Health Administration

Public Policy

Concentrations by Subject

Executive Health Administration

  • Health Administration

Health Administration

  • health administration

Public Policy

  • public policy

Faculty

Amanda Y Agan

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: intersections of economics, law, and public policy with a focus on the economics of crime and labor market discrimination

Rosemary Jane Avery

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: family policy and decision making

Christopher Brendan Barrett

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Applied Economics International and Development Economics and Policy Food and Agricultural Economics Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics and Policy Emerging Markets

Colleen L. Barry

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: health and social policies related to mental illness and substance abuse; health care spending and mortality

David Alexander Bateman

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: black American civil rights movement during the last decades of the 19th century and first three decades of the 20th century, the development of industrial democracy as an intellectual and institutional program in the United States, as well as ongoing data collection projects on American state constitutions and 19th century state legislative behavior.

Michele Belot

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Applied Microeconomics, Labor, Health and Education Economics

Kendra Bischoff

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

Nicolas L. Bottan

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Public Economics, Behavioral Economics, Development Economics

Colleen Marie Carey

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Executive Health Administration: Health Administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: economics; industrial organization of health care; federal regulation of health insurance markets

John H Cawley

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: health management and policy

Benjamin T. Cornwell

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

Erin York Cornwell

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

Moon Duchin

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Geometric group theory. Geometric topology. Dynamics

Rachel E Dunifon

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: family and social welfare policy and management; health policy and management

Parfait M Eloundou-Enyegue

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: population and social change, sustainable development

Peter K. Enns

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: public opinion and political representation, mass incarceration and the legal system, and data analytics

Maria Fitzpatrick

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: economics of education; early childhood; retirement; public sector compensation; female labor supply

Gustavo A. Flores-Macias

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: the politics of economic reforms; taxation and state capacity, and 3) the consequences of the militarization of law enforcement

Raymond Richard Geddes

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: regulation and corporate governance; women's property rights; postal services; antitrust policy

Shannon Marie Gleeson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Labor Relations, Law, & History

Matthew Hall

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

David R Just

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

Max Kapustin

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: crime, education, health, labor economics; applied economics

Donald S Kenkel

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: health economics and policy; cost-benefit analysis

Philipp Kircher

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: labor and health economics

Catherine Louise Kling

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: environmental policy design and the valuation of environmental goods

Sarah Kreps

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: the intersection of international politics, technology, and national security

Pauline Leung

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: public economics, labor economics

Sade L. Lindsay

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: a sociologist by training whose research interests lie at the intersection of criminal justice, punishment, racial inequality, and public policy; racism and the criminalization of deviance, incarceration, prison reentry, collateral consequences of criminal justice contact, and drug policy and use.

William Lodge

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: HIV primary and secondary prevention with a focus on gender and sexual minority health both domestically and internationally.

Michael F. Lovenheim

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: public finance; labor economics; economics of education

Ellen Marie Lust

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: the role of social institutions and local authorities in governance

Vida Maralani

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: social inequality, demography, social stratification

Alan D. Mathios

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: consumer protection; antitrust law and economics; public utility regulation; federal and state regulation

Jamila Michener

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: American politics; poverty and inequality; public policy; political participation; race and ethnic politics; urban politics

Douglas L. Miller

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: applied econometrics, labor economics, health economics, public economics

Kelly A. Musick

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: policy analysis and management

Sean M. Nicholson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: health economics

Jeff D. Niederdeppe

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

Sheila Marie Olmstead

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: the economic dimensions of environmental policies, especially those related to water quantity and quality

Ariel Ortiz-Bobea

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Climate change impacts and adaptation, agricultural economics, environmental and resource economics, applied econometrics

Eleonora Patacchini

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: urban economics, labor economics, law and economics, political economy, policy evaluation, public policy

Zhuan Pei

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: effect and design of social and employment programs and applied micro-econometric methods in causal inference

Thomas B. Pepinsky

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: the interaction of political and economic systems, mostly in emerging market economies

Karl Andrew Pillemer

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: gerontology, life course studies, sociology of the family, long-term care, public policy, translational research

Adriana Marie Reyes

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: family demography, health

Peter M. Rich

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: sociology; inequality; housing segregation, and education policy

Michael Ryan Richards

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: health care provider responses to public policies and evolving market environments, the structure and delivery of public insurance programs (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid) as well as health care workforce issues.

Rachel Beatty Riedl

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Institutional development in new democracies, local governance and decentralization policy, authoritarian regime legacies, and religion and politics

Evan Riehl

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: labor economics, development economics, education

David Ezra Sahn

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: health economics, nutrition and poverty

Nicholas James Sanders

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: environmental economics, environmental policy and health, labor economics, health economics

Seth Sanders

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: labor economics, econometrics, population research

Sharon L. Sassler

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: social demography; union formation (marriage, cohabitation); immigrant adaptation; racial and ethnic differentiation; young adult transitions

Bryan L. Sykes

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: demography and criminology, population processes (e.g., fertility, mortality, enumeration), mass incarceration, global population health, social inequality, law & society, and research methodology.

Laura Tach

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Poverty & public policy; family demography; neighborhood inequality.

Sharon Tennyson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Health Administration: health administration; Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: economics of insurance; regulation; consumer policy

Chantal Thomas

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: Employment/Labor Law, International and Comparative Law

Maureen Waller

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: cultural sociology; low income families; qualitative and mixed methods; unmarried fathers; welfare and child support policy

Kim A Weeden

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy

Eleanor Wilking

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: the intersection of tax policy and employment law through the lends of law and economics

Cristobal Young

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Public Policy: public policy
  • Research Interests: economic sociology, inequality, quantitative methods