Mary Jo Dudley is the director of Migrant Advocacy and Support (MAS), a project of the Center for Transformative Action dedicated to advancing justice, dignity, and equity by partnering with migrants to address migrant-identified health, legal, and educational priorities. MAS is grounded in community co-creation, cultivating trusted spaces where migrants surface emerging concerns, set priorities, and collaborate in developing practical tools, workshops, and mutual aid strategies that help families prepare for challenges with potentially long-term consequences.
Mary Jo also serves as chair of the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health, a 15-member body that advises the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration on improving the health and well-being of farmworkers and their families nationwide.
Previously, she directed the Cornell Farmworker Program for more than 20 years, working to strengthen farmworkers’ living and working conditions. Centering farmworker perspectives, she helped develop accessible educational resources—including workshops and short animated videos—focused on health, workplace safety, cultural concerns, and immigration issues.
In close collaboration with farmworkers, Mary Jo co-created Spanish-language skits, role-plays, and videos explaining legal rights and how to respond during encounters with law enforcement. Through bilingual workshops, she assisted hundreds of families in preparing power-of-attorney and temporary guardianship documents to ensure children would be protected if parents were detained. She has also supported hundreds of families in completing parental permission-to-travel forms, enabling parents or designated adults to safely transport minors across international borders.
Her work has received national recognition. In 2019, she received the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award (Regional) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award, a national honor recognizing exemplary engaged scholarship. In 2012, she was named a White House Champion of Change and received the César Chávez Legacy Award from President Barack Obama.
Locally, she received the 2026 Women of Distinction Award, the 2025 Friend of Labor Award from the Tompkins County Workers’ Center and multiple honors from Cornell University, including the 2022 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Individual Extension Outreach Award, the 2015 George D. Levy Engaged Teaching and Research Award, the 2013 Cornell Engaged Learning/Research Faculty Fellowship, the 2010 Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony, and the 2010 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Service-Learning Award.