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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
  • Director, Center for Applied Research on Work (CAROW)

Ariel Avgar is the David M. Cohen Professor of Labor Relations at the ILR School at Cornell University. His research focuses on two primary areas within employment relations.

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.

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

Health Care Cooperatives Could Hold Key to Easing Elderly Caregiver Shortage

Home care cooperatives may be the key to alleviating the shortage of paid caregivers for older Americans, according to a new study co-authored by Ariel Avgar, Ph.D. ’08, and Dr. Madeline Sterling, A&S ’08, director of ILR’s Initiative on Home Care Work.
Scheinman Institute team helping measure results of healthcare restructuring
Health Care Cooperatives Could Hold Key to Easing Elderly Caregiver Shortage
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Contact Us

reach out to our team

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homecarework@cornell.edu