Lara Kaltman, MPH
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
Issue Leader
Nutrition & Community Development
Involvement/Activity
Community Member
What I would like to offer as a collaborator…
I provide leadership and direction for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County’s nutrition education, obesity prevention, food access, maternal and child health and community development programs. In addition to my nutrition and health programmatic focus, I am interested in identifying and testing strategies that support multisector teams in advancing health equity and creating resilient communities. Community-based organizations such as Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations are ideal partners in this research pursuit given the deep and broad networks Extension community educators have cultivated over time, in all sectors of public health – including environmental health, social and behavioral health, maternal and child health and health promotion and communication. I’d like to make myself and my colleagues available to serve as a community partner on Cornell Center for Health Equity member projects.
What I am looking for from a collaborator…
As a public health practitioner and registered dietitian, I have over 11 years of experience engaging with community collaboratives with a diversity of stakeholders to design, implement, monitor and evaluate activities that advance health equity in Tompkins County and its surrounding region. Over the past three years I’ve seen tremendous growth in our organization’s ability to identify and act upon opportunities to work with Cornell faculty and students on community-based health interventions, which leads me to believe that with the right resources and incentives we can build coordinated, sustainable public health infrastructure.
