By Olivia Hall
Fourteen members of Cornell’s faculty and staff are being recognized this year with Community-Engaged Practice and Innovation Awards from the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement. With one recipient representing each of the university’s colleges and schools, along with an honoree from Student and Campus Life for the first time, the awards highlight individuals who have developed community-engaged learning, leadership or research initiatives that create meaningful curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students.
“This year’s Community-Engaged Practice and Innovation Award recipients reflect the breadth and depth of community-engaged work taking place across Cornell,” said Basil Safi, executive director of the Einhorn Center. “Faculty are partnering with communities locally and globally — from Ithaca and Tompkins County to New York City, India and beyond — to address challenges in areas such as health, agriculture, education, entrepreneurship and environmental data. Across all this work, students are deeply involved as learners, collaborators and emerging leaders, applying their academic knowledge in meaningful partnership with communities.”
Recipients of the 2026 Community-Engaged Practice and Innovation Awards include:
Cornell Tech: Nikhil Garg, assistant professor, ORIE, uses his research to advance artificial intelligence and computational systems in the public interest while engaging students at all levels as core contributors. In one recent, multi-year collaboration, he worked with New York City public schools to increase application rates of disadvantaged middle school students to high-performing schools. In another, his team built an algorithmic tool to equitably and efficiently understanding reporting behavior and agency responses for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
