House Professor-Dean

House Professor-Dean

Each House in the West Campus House System is overseen by a House Professor-Dean, a tenured faculty member who is the leader of the House's intellectual program, and shares responsibility with the House Assistant Dean for the realization of the House's educational mission.

 

Image of Raina Plowright, smiling, wearing black shirt and black glasses.

Raina Plowright, PhD, MS, BVSc
 

Rudolf J. and Katherine L. Steffen Professor of Veterinary Medicine

 

Department of Public & Ecosystem Health

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

Ithaca, NY 14853

Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

200 Rice Hall, 340 Tower Road

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853

Email: rkp57@cornell.edu

Raina Plowright is the Rudolf J. and Katherine Steffen Professor at Cornell University and a Cornell Atkinson Scholar at the Atkinson Center for Sustainability. A veterinarian with an M.S. in epidemiology and a Ph.D. in ecology from UC Davis, her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of zoonotic spillover to inform strategies for pandemic prevention. Plowright leads transdisciplinary collaborations on emerging infectious disease, particularly WHO-priority pathogens originating in bats. Her work spans sub-cellular to landscape-scales, revealing how land-use change and climate variation drive pathogen emergence—and identifying practical strategies for prevention. She co-chairs the Lancet Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover and serves on advisory boards, including the NSF Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education. Plowright is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (2023) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2022).