For her work supporting the Ithaca community and people struggling with incarceration and drug addiction across New York, Netra Shetty '25 earned the 2025 University Relations Campus Community Leadership Award.
Each year, University Relations recognizes one or more graduating seniors for their engagement with and service to the greater Ithaca area.
Monica Yant Kinney, interim vice president for university relations, presented the award as Shetty's friends and mentors looked on during a ceremony in Day Hall on May 14. Shetty's parents and sister in California watched virtually.
"Netra's major in biology and society, and her public health-focused research on substance use and harm reduction in various high-risk communities, reflects her dedication to community health and her empathy for our shared, diverse community," Yant Kinney said.
Shetty, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences and a Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, started working with Ithaca-based Ultimate Reentry Opportunity (URO) as a freshman and continued throughout her four years at Cornell. The organization helps people who have faced - or are currently facing - incarceration break the cycle of recidivism.
"Netra did not shy away from any of the tough realities," said Taili Mugambee, URO lead program coordinator. "If anything, it seemed like that was the substance that kept her coming back."
With URO, Shetty learned about the importance of collective impact and seeking input from community leaders from different sectors.
"From the countless meetings and hours we spend discussing and working on our plans, we're able to create initiatives that emphasize this shared vision, involve diverse perspectives and work seamlessly with other organizations that impact the Ithaca community," she said.
Shetty also volunteered with the Ithaca Free Clinic, which provides accessible, low-barrier health care to Ithaca and the surrounding area. And she conducted research in harm reduction and the opioid crisis.
"For me, both of these experiences have shaped my perspective on the role of health care in uplifting the community," Shetty said, "and have emphasized, for me, the importance of community engagement."
Her research on harm reduction tools and opioid use prevention has revealed stark disparities in access to prevention methods across racial and ethnic lines. The finding could help policymakers as they combat the opioid crisis.
Nishita Dsouza, a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University's Social Intervention Group, collaborated with Shetty on her research and joined the awards ceremony virtually. "I was blown away by Netra's capabilities to not only conceptualize these wicked problems that we're facing as a society, but to meet them with grace, compassion and eloquence," Dsouza said.
After Shetty graduates, she hopes to pursue a career in the medical field.
"It is without a shadow of a doubt that Netra will be a person leading in whatever field she chooses to embark upon," Mugambee said. "She will be a lifelong fighter for justice in the medical profession or something related."
