May 26, 2017
Welcome remarks
Dear graduating students, family members, and friends; dear members of the faculty, staff and of the larger Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health family.
What a day this is! I am delighted to be among the first to congratulate the Classes of 2017, soon to join the ranks of Harvard Chan alumni. This is my first year as Dean. You are the first class that I have the honor of sending into the world. I could not be more proud.
I also want to congratulate the countless others who helped to make this day possible—so many family members, friends, teachers, mentors, and so many other supporters. I congratulate you and I thank you.
Many of you are here today, hearts bursting with pride. Others, equally loving and loved, are unable to be with us. That is true every year, of course, but this year is different. Along with the usual reasons—cost, distance, sickness, unavoidable conflicts—new political realities have erected new and disturbing hurdles for us.
As we celebrate, let us also keep in mind those who have been kept away. We are here for them as well as ourselves. This day is their day as well.
One person from our Harvard Chan family who is not here deserves special mention. His name is Mohammed Al Safadi, and he receives his MPH degree along with you all here today. Before coming to Harvard, Dr. Al Safadi managed medical projects for Qatar Red Crescent International in Nepal, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, as well as his native Jordan. The programs he oversaw served refugees, earthquake victims, and others in desperate need of care.
Ordinarily, Dr. Al Safadi would be seated among this year’s graduating class—he would be sitting with you, his classmates and friends—but issues related to his visa barred him from returning to the United States from a winter session trip taken to Jordan. As a result, he went to extraordinary lengths to complete his degree via long distance. He had hoped to return for commencement, but we recently learned that his visa application was again rejected.
These are challenging times. I don’t need to tell you all that. So many things we hold dear are now under threat.
- The vision of a peaceful world where everyone’s basic needs are met—where affordable health care is recognized as a basic human right—is under threat.
- The core democratic values of diversity, free expression, fairness, and inclusion—principles that belong at the heart of our national identity—are at risk.
- The belief that, with privilege, comes responsibility—both to the present and to future generations—is threatened.
- The primacy of science—along with the belief that public policy must be grounded in evidence, not prejudice or emotion—is a concern.
You are the first class to graduate into this new reality, an era that began with November’s U.S. elections. I know you feel this deeply. I also know that you are up to the challenges being faced. That the world will be a far better place for what you bring to it.
How do I know this? I know this because I have watched you. I have seen anger and despair evolve into determination. I have seen your passion, your commitment, your brilliance reflected throughout our School, in ways both large and small.
- I have seen it in your service and activism—your weekly teach-ins and phone banks, your participation in the March for Science and other public events, your engagement in student organizations that seek to improve both this School and the larger world.
- I have seen it in the many ways you’ve supported each other—not the least of which is how you rallied around Mohammed after he was barred from returning to this country. You saw that he had class notes, you even Skyped with him and Skyped him into lectures.
- I have seen it in your work to expand health care for those who need it most. From Haiti to Angola, from New Jersey to Mexico—and, of course, right here in Boston—you’ve combined the study of public health with your commitment to public health service.
In these ways—and so many more—you have shown awareness that public health is far more than a profession, far more than an academic discipline. Public health is also a movement.
Never has that been more apparent—or more important—than it is today. In the words of writer Rebecca Solnit: “We write history with our feet and with our presence and our collective voice and vision.”
Among those showing the way here is today’s commencement speaker. Gina McCarthy served as EPA Commissioner under President Barack Obama. In recent months, she has used her public profile to defend the science of climate change and denounce efforts to turn back the clock on environmental protections.
Now, more than ever, we need to build on such stellar leadership—to raise the public voice of public health. How do we reach people and change minds? What are the most productive ways to stand up for our values? These are questions that we have to confront. In their answers lies the future of the public health movement.
Every one of you is part of this movement. As graduates of this great School, you take your place in an extraordinary lineage of public health activists, visionaries, and educators.
One of the earliest was Alice Hamilton, who—in 1919—became Harvard’s first female faculty member. A pacifist and advocate for women’s rights, Hamilton conducted groundbreaking research on dangerous workplace conditions. She began her teaching career in Chicago, drawn by the opportunity to live with immigrants and the poor in Jane Addams’ legendary Hull House. Looking back on her early life at the age of 88, she had this to say: “For me the satisfaction is that things are better now, and I had some part in it.”
Another great inspiration is the late Jonathan Mann, founding director of our FXB Center and the first head of the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS. Dr. Mann brought together the worlds of health and science with human rights, fields that until then had little to do with each other. He cast light on public health dangers posed by silence, exclusion, and isolation—work as resonant today as it was in the 1980s.
I think, too, of many Harvard Chan alumni, who are at work now in the field:
- Of Monica Bharel, a member of the Class of 2012, who now serves as this state’s commissioner of public health and who has trained her sights on combatting opioid abuse and health disparities.
- I also think of Willie Parker, a member of the Class of 1998, who has emerged as a champion of reproductive health choice in the Deep South, often flying in from out of state to serve women in need.
- I also think of Annie Sparrow, a member of the Class of 2004, who travels back and forth from New York to Syria’s Turkish border, where she trains medical providers on the frontlines of the nation’s bloody civil war.
And the list goes on and on.
Now it is your turn—your time to take up the torch.
What a force you are, with your brilliant minds, your fierce convictions, and your rich diversity.
Altogether, 684 of you receive degrees today. You come from all over the world. From 70 countries and from 38 states across this United States, plus the District of Columbia.
You are receiving a wide range of degrees—a reflection of the vast range of gifts that you bring to the world:
34 of you are receiving Doctors of Philosophy;
8 of you are receiving Doctors of Public Health—the first of our students to receive this newly redesigned degree;
59 of you are receiving Doctors of Science;
414 Masters of Public Health—including the first 48 graduates of our new blended MPH in Epidemiology degree;
159 receiving Masters of Science; and
10 Masters of Arts.
Impressive in talent and in quantity.
* * *
As you step into this next chapter, each one of you will face rare challenges—but also opportunities. Events have shocked us into action—and into a new solidarity and sense of shared mission. This is a resource of tremendous power, ours to use or squander.
If there is one quality these times demand it is agility, a word that I have thought of a lot during this academic year. Agility means for me and for many of us the capacity to see openings and quickly act on them—and I witnessed you all being agile during times of distress during this academic year. Agility also means to think creatively, to leverage circumstances—and I saw all you respond with great agility during this academic year.
To this end, I urge you to seek common ground with those you may be tempted to write off. In a world as polarized as ours is today, this can feel daunting. It is daunting. But I also think it is essential.
* * *
The emblem for this year’s festivities is a lightbulb. This is part of a playful tradition—the foam lightbulbs that many of you received this morning are our symbol for this year. That said, as I prepare to send you off, I also see a deeper meaning: Those lights stand for power. They stand for hope. Those lights are you.
I often think of these words from one of my favorite writers, Maya Angelou. She wrote, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” As graduates of this great School, you have learned much, received much. And you have so much to share.
Few of us expected the events of last November, and most of us continue to grapple with what they mean and what they call on us to do. And while I don’t have all the answers, I do know this:
You are the future of public health—of the public health movement.
This world will be a far better place for your contributions.
Closing remarks
Before concluding this ceremony, I would like to ask all our graduates to rise.
As a sign of your entry into the company of learned women and men, you may now move your mortarboard tassels from the right to the left.
This moment marks the end of our academic year—and the beginning of your life as a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The world needs your gifts as never before. May you use your talents and education to advance the public health movement, for the greater good of all. Congratulations to the class of 2017!
photo: J.D. Levine
Additional coverage
Harvard Chan graduates urged to ‘speak truth to power’
Commencement day photo gallery
Commencement eve photo gallery
Commencement slideshow
Storify, a collection of photos taken by students, families, and friends
Student, faculty, and staff award winners
Former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy address
Watch a webcast of Gina McCarthy’s address
Student speaker William Seligman address
Alumni Council President Sameh El-Saharty address