ITHACA—Democratic Congressional Nominee Tracy Mitrano (NY-23) announced that she will be meeting with Columbia University professor and sustainable development expert Dr. Jeffrey Sachs today, ahead of Sachs’s lecture later tonight at Cornell University.
Broadly known to be one of the world’s leading thinkers on global economics and poverty eradication, and twice named to Time magazine’s “100 most influential world leaders” list, Sachs is the Director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development and a Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on sustainable development. He has spent decades advising governments and policymakers in countries on five continents about economic strategy and development.
“As someone who has taught public policy, I am familiar with Dr. Sach’s work and therefore especially honored to speak with him, truly one of our nation’s greatest economic minds,” Mitrano said. “He helps all Americans come to grips with the ways in which the current administration’s foreign policy will harm the global as well as the domestic economy. For the 23rd District in particular, President Trump’s tariffs hurt manufactures, workers, and family farms specifically as well as all of us as consumers.”
In addition to his work as an advisor and academic, Sachs is a syndicated columnist whose writing has been published in more than 100 countries and the author of numerous books, including three New York Times best sellers. His recent writings have been critical of the Trump administration’s protectionist tariffs, which he believes will have a deeply adverse impact on the world’s economy.
Mitrano and Sachs have a private meeting scheduled in the afternoon.
“My years of experience in sustainable development have taught me that there is a better, more equitable way forward,” Sachs said. “We, as Americans, can build a nation that is both prosperous, fair, and sustainable, and one that promotes world peace and global cooperation. But to do that, we need political engagement, especially from our young people, and we also need candidates who are talking about these issues. I’m pleased to be meeting with Tracy Mitrano, whose platform of economic development and cybersecurity experience indicates that she takes these matters seriously, and advocates for a fairer and sustainable America.”
Following his meeting with Mitrano, Sachs will give a talk at Cornell University entitled, “Reclaiming American Democracy,” and centering on American civic engagement and its ramifications for sustainable development around the world. The lecture will be accompanied by the launch of his new book, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the university’s Statler Auditorium and begin at 7 p.m. A bipartisan Cornell student group, the “Vote Everywhere Coalition,” will be holding a voter registration drive before and after the talk.
“Our young people inherit the world as we leave it to them, which is why it is so important that we strive for it to be sustainable ecologically, economically, and politically,” Mitrano said. “The student vote is a powerful and largely untapped political force in this district. I urge all students to engage in our current political moment. The way you vote this November—and indeed whether you vote this November — has implications for the global economy, nature, and the experience of billions of people across the globe. You decide: Will the U.S. represent sustainable development or inhibit it?”