Skip to main content
Cornell University mobile logo
holding hands

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
  • 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 Work

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 Work

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

Study: Tech Can Empower Home Care Workers, Not Just Surveil Them

Cornell Chronicle
A qualitative field study, which is part of the Initiative on Home Care Work in the ILR School’s Center for Applied Research on Work, is exploring how workplace tracking apps can be used not to surveil workers, but to help them build solidarity and improve their working conditions.
A home healthcare nurse stands with her iPad.
Study: Tech Can Empower Home Care Workers, Not Just Surveil Them

Dr. Madeline Sterling Talks about the Challenges of Working as a Direct Care Worker

In this episode of MPR News, Dr. Madeline Sterling, MD, MPH, MS talks about the challenges of working as a direct care worker. Her research on this workforce reveals how these difficulties impact their mental health and wellbeing.
MPR News
Dr. Madeline Sterling Talks about the Challenges of Working as a Direct Care Worker

Avgar, CAROW Awarded Grant to Document Home Care Worker Power

The ILR School and Weill Cornell Medicine have received a $300,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to administer a worker-focused survey of home health aides across the North and the South of the United States.
Ariel Avgar
Avgar, CAROW Awarded Grant to Document Home Care Worker Power
cornell-seal Icon

Contact Us

reach out to our team

corner of Lexington Avenue showing the Cornell flag
homecarework@cornell.edu