“On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!”: Class Day Celebrates 2026 Graduates
A May 19 Class Day ceremony celebrated the individual achievements of nearly 700 Columbia Mailman School graduates while emphasizing the power of collective action in public health. It was the first Class Day presided over by Dean Jonathan Mermin, who joined the School this spring.
Following an invocation by Robert Fullilove, Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs, Dean Mermin congratulated graduates and their families and friends who filled the Armory Track and Field Center on West 168th Street. He recognized distinguished guests and speakers and offered special thanks to Kathleen Sikkema, Barbara and Bruce P. Dohrenwend Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, who served for eight months as interim dean.
In remarks to graduates, Dean Mermin acknowledged that the current environment for public health is a difficult one where “truth and trust are paramount, and in worrying short supply.” Misinformation has proliferated online, undermining established truths and eroding trust. Yet, attempts to counter this situation by citing facts alone will fall short, he observed, “because truth requires trust to matter—trust of expertise, trust of institutions, and trust of people.” Instead, the Dean urged graduates to use their abundant talents to earn the public’s trust “by monitoring and reporting on epidemics and environmental threats, by providing care and direct communication, and by guiding the nation to more effective action.” This essential work cannot succeed in isolation, he added. “Public health is at its heart a collective enterprise.”
Katrina Armstrong, Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences, and Dorcas Adedoja, MPH’20, President of the Alumni Board, congratulated graduates and welcomed them to the alumni community. Vice Dean for Education Michael Joseph recognized four faculty members with awards for outstanding teaching and called attention to a student award ceremony held earlier in the day. Joseph spoke to the value of diversity, noting that students, faculty, and staff represent varied backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and points of view. The ceremony concluded as Dean Mermin led graduates in reciting the Public Health Oath.
“Seek Out Your Posses”
Cheryl Pegus, MD, MPH’92, CEO and Board Chair of FlyteHealth and the recipient of the 2026 Dean’s Visionary Leadership Award, delivered the Commencement Address. In a speech full of advice for graduates, she counseled them not to limit themselves to a single sector or function within public health. “You can be a clinician and a systems thinker, an operator and an innovator, a public health expert working inside technology or business organizations,” she said. Moreover, unexpected career turns can be advantageous; graduates should spend less time worrying about a linear career and more time understanding how the healthcare system works—and doesn’t—to identify solutions. “If you focus on solving real problems, your career will compound in ways that titles never will,” she said. Pegus went on to thank several Columbia Mailman professors who “shaped not just what I do, but how I think.” She continued: “Throughout my career, I've had sponsors who opened doors I didn't yet know existed and supported me through them. I would ask each of you to seek out your posses—those who will guide and mentor you, and to also become someone who supports others.”
“On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!”
The teamwork theme continued with an address by Christopher J. Collado, MPH’26, who spoke on behalf of the graduating class. Collado, a former NCAA fencer at Ohio State, deployed a sports analogy befitting the setting—the Armory track-and-field venue. “We are not at the finish line. This is a hand off, because in a relay race, you don't win alone,” he said. Graduates must carry forward all ground gained by those before them—including researchers, advocates, and health care workers. “The work only moves forward when the person behind you receives what you've built and keeps going. That is public health,” he said. Collado spoke of those who went the distance to fight for their rights, including Black, Hispanic, transgender, and disabled community members, noting, “This track has been run by those who came before us, often at a great cost. … We honor them by refusing to slow down.” He concluded: “That is how we finish this race, not alone, not for ourselves, but together, for everyone counting on us to show up. … On your mark, get set, go!”
