Message from the Dean
Congratulations, new graduates of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health!
Dean Barbara K. Rimer
We welcome you as alumni and colleagues. You succeeded! If you are like many of the students who came before you, a lot of people helped you get here today — family, friends, faculty and staff members, other students and people from your communities. I hope that many of them are with you today in person or in spirit to celebrate the milestone of commencement. To all our guests, thank you for sharing the journey with our graduates and for joining us here!
Graduates, we celebrate your accomplishments! As students, you conducted inspiring research, mastered challenging courses, passed difficult exams, won competitions, garnered awards and recognition, were resilient in the face of setbacks, completed awesome capstones, taught, presented at important conferences, co-authored papers for major journals, and wrote master’s theses and doctoral dissertations.
You helped to solve public health problems, and we are especially proud that seven of the Graduate School’s 17 Impact Awards this year went to Gillings School students. These awards recognize the positive benefit of our students’ research for North Carolinians. Although we are committed to being a global school, we are first for North Carolina.
While navigating coursework and degree requirements, many of you worked, held student leadership roles and volunteered with organizations on and off campus. You made our School and communities better.
This year’s Minority Health Conference, the largest student-led (our students!) health conference in the U.S., now in its 37th year, drew more than 800 participants on campus, with an additional 2,000+ participants in 44 different viewing sites. The conference dealt with some of the most important issues of our time, including social justice. We are so proud that the conference planning committee was given UNC’s Student Organization Award for diversity. I hope that you will be committed to social justice, health equity, diversity and inclusion as you go forward in your lives and careers.
As you leave the Gillings School to make the world and your communities safer, healthier, greener and more just for all, remember the words of American author, human rights activist and North Carolinian, Maya Angelou — It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. Your education was supported, in part, through the generosity of North Carolinians. Give back, however you can, when you can.
The Gillings School and Carolina always will be your home. Mentor our students and support the School. Come back to visit, share your stories, and let us know how we can help. As Gillings School graduates and Tar Heels, you are forever one of us. Best wishes wherever your journeys take you.
With appreciation and gratitude,
Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH
Return to Table of Contents
