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Cornell University

Student & Campus Life

Soup & Hope Speaker Bios

2026 Speakers

All speaker bios coming soon. In the meantime, explore recordings from previous Soup & Hope speakers below.

January 29 – Michelle Van-Ess Grant, Senior Associate Dean of Students

Dr. Michelle Van-Ess Grant is a senior student affairs leader, scholar-practitioner, and mother with over two decades of experience in higher education. She currently serves as Senior Associate Dean of Students at Cornell University, where she oversees the Centers for Student Equity, Empowerment, and Belonging and works closely with students, staff, and campus partners to foster inclusive, affirming environments. Dr. Van-Ess Grant’s work is deeply shaped by her lived experience as the child of immigrants, her commitment to equity and belonging, and her belief in the power of community care. Her approach to leadership centers authenticity, grace, and the understanding that growth often happens in the in-between moments of becoming. Through her participation in Soup & Hope, she looks forward to sharing reflections on hope, rest, and embracing stories that are still being written.

February 12 – Basil Safi, Executive Director David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement

Basil is a first-generation American with 24 years of experience in the management, design and implementation of public health, strategic communication and community-engaged learning programs. Prior to joining Cornell, he spent ten years with the Center for Communication Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and served as an environmental public health leadership fellow at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. Basil has supported community-based public health initiatives all over the world, including Bolivia, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. He has devoted himself to lifelong learning that keeps him balanced across the various personal, familial, spiritual, and professional aspects of his life.

February 26 – Emily Dunuwila, Health Initiatives Coordinator, Skorton Center for Health Initiatives

Emily is a Sri Lankan-American wellness educator and practitioner passionate about creating accessible, spaces for healing and learning. Before joining Cornell, her journey took her from owning and operating a massage therapy studio along the coast of Maine to co-founding a calm space program at West Philadelphia High School and developing mindfulness-based programming to support educators and students. Her story explores her experiences of creating and re-imagining healing spaces before, during and after COVID.

March 12 – Trisha Bhujle '24

Trisha Bhujle is an undergraduate senior from Texas studying Environment and Sustainability in CALS, with interests in wildlife conservation and food systems. As a Laidlaw Scholar conducting research in Swahili, she has traveled to the UK, Tanzania, and the UAE to study the role of climate change in amplifying conflicts between people and wild animals. At Cornell, she is heavily involved in Anabel’s Grocery and the Free Food Fridge, and has particularly enjoyed designing initiatives to minimize waste and expand access to affordable food. She recently won the Matthew A. Kleiner Health Leadership Award for designing outreach initiatives to support mental health and wellbeing through nature-based initiatives. In her Soup & Hope talk, she will focus on her personal struggles to navigate over a decade of physical and mental health challenges while pursuing her ambitions.

March 26 – Angela Odoms-Young, The Nancy Schlegel Meinig Associate Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition

Speaker bio coming soon!
 

2025 Speaker Series

2023 Speaker Series

Previous Soup & Hope talks