CUNY Center for Systems & Community Design

The Center for Systems and Community Design is an academic research and action center at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy located in Harlem, New York City. Using systems science, design thinking, collaboration, and entrepreneurial methodologies, the Center serves as a hub of research excellence and innovation in health promotion and disease prevention through systems and community design. It lends its expertise in (re)framing health problems, unpacking complex issues, developing creative solutions, and recommending new research and practice agendas through a trans-disciplinary approach that combines academia, business, design, public stakeholders and diverse professional practice fields. The Center aims to cultivate multi-sectoral partnerships, train a new generation of public health actors in diverse settings, and undertake innovative and trans-disciplinary initiatives to promote health and wellbeing. The Center serves as both a think-tank and do-tank, as well as a forum for public and private stakeholders to come together to tackle complex social and public health challenges. It also provides expert consultancy to communities and organizations on aligning business or organizational strategies with health, assessing and reframing health issues, developing creative solutions, and recommending new practice and R&D agendas.