Co-Principal Investigator Monika Safford, MD, and I are delighted to welcome you to the Weill Cornell Medicine Diversity Center of Excellence of the Cornell Center for Health Equity. The Diversity Center of Excellence’s mission is to enhance diversity in medicine and health care and to promote health equity through research, education, and advocacy, all in partnership with the community.

I am a native New Yorker and decided that I wanted to be a doctor when I was fourteen years old. I am now a primary care doctor and take care of patients and teach as part of Cornell’s faculty. I have had the privilege of taking care of wonderful patients who have taught me so much.

I work with many collaborators to increase the diversity of the health care workforce so that it can address the needs of an increasingly diverse nation. Low income and minority people in our country are more likely to be sick and to die young, and we must work to change that. This is a challenging time for our country and for the world, as we confront important decisions about health care delivery, gun violence, education, climate change, voting rights, economic rights, and the rights of immigrants, refugees, and minority communities. I am convinced that together we can make a difference—and that the keys are education and empowerment—especially of young people and of communities.

We are lucky to live in New York City, the most diverse city in the world, which has welcomed migrants from all over the country, and immigrants from every country of the world, for hundreds of years. New York City has been at the center of many key social movements, and cultural and political achievements. Countless innovators and leaders started out here. Weill Cornell and New York-Presbyterian have also fostered the development of wonderful physicians, scientists, and other health and science professionals.

Susana Morales, MD

Principal Investigator, Diversity Center of Excellence
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, General Internal Medicine
Vice Chair of Diversity, Weill Department of Medicine