The Principal Investigators at Cornell are Avery August, Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs, and Michael Kotlikoff, Provost at Cornell. The program’s Faculty Development Core is led by Drs. Yael Levitte, Associate Provost for Faculty Development & Diversity, and Cynthia Leifer, Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Evaluation Core by Drs. Josephine Martell Director of Research Development in CALS and Cate Samuelson, Principal at Collaborative Solutions Consulting.

The Cornell FIRST program features interdisciplinary hiring of a cohort of 10 new assistant professor across seven colleges:

• College of Veterinary Medicine
• College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
• College of Arts & Sciences
• Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing & Information Sciences
• College of Human Ecology
• College of Engineering
• Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

The Cornell FIRST program fosters sustainable institutional culture change, building on the Belonging at Cornell framework for developing a culture of Inclusive Excellence. Cornell FIRST uses a combination of institutional policies and initiatives that impact hiring, mentoring, promotion and tenure, salary equity, aimed at enhancing compositional diversity, retention, and the success of our faculty.