BUSPH Commencement Speaker Urges Graduates to Become ‘Dauntless Do-ers’.

As former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and current president of Merck’s vaccine division, Dr. Julie Gerberding inhabits a world of long-winded conference calls and consensus-building meetings.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she has been known to interject, “people are dying. Let’s step up. Let’s get the decision made. Let’s move on.”

But in offering advice to the 2013 class of the BU School of Public Health, Gerberding urged the 250 assembled graduates to temper their passion for change with patience, saying: “Without patience, passion can be reckless, even dangerous . . . It is important to balance the accelerator pedal with the brake of patience, because that is what ultimately helps us to be effective.”

Gerberding, who was responsible for coordinating emergency responses for anthrax bioterrorism, SARS, West Nile virus and other health threats as director of the CDC from 2002 to 2009, used her Commencement address to encourage graduates to become “dauntless do-ers” – undeterred by the magnitude of the public health problems confronting them, but also accepting of the reality that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes. She laid out a series of pressing domestic and global health challenges, ranging from malaria, to a lack of clean water, to the spiraling costs of health care.

“My generation has left you with a gaping hole: We have an enormous global health deficit,” Gerberding said. “We’re not going to solve these global health deficits by health care reform. We’re not going to solve them by more taxes. We’re not going to solve them by new medicine. We’re not going to solve them by . . . foreign aid or philanthropy.

“These global health deficits have to be solved in new ways — and you have to be the dauntless do-ers to step up to the plate and figure this out,” she said.

She said the next generation of public health workers will have to tackle non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and obesity, while continuing to wage battle on AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. In developing countries, non-communicable diseases are “rapidly taking over the agenda of health systems in these new democracies and other environments,” she said. “They’re sucking the most productive people out of society so that the countries themselves cannot gain an economic foothold and thrive.”

Gerberding, the first woman director of the CDC, told the graduates that the key to making an impact in public health was to “translate a dream into doing.” She had set her sights on becoming a physician at an early age, she said, then charted a course that was defined by three principles, grounded in the concept of social justice.

“First of all, I believe that each life is equally valuable. I believe that each learner is equally valiant. And I believe that each leader is equally vital,” she said.

“Each of us has to go deep and really define within ourselves our values and principles that make us operate in a way that we feel proud of.”

She called the pursuit of public health an “invisible profession,” saying the public generally does not understand or recognize the behind-the-scenes work that epidemiologists and biostatisticians do – until there is a public health emergency or crisis, such as the bombing at the Boston Marathon last month.

“You’re being commenced into the invisible profession—one that is absolutely vital to the health and wellbeing of people around the world, but one that is usually unnoticed, unless there’s a catastrophic outbreak or some other public health emergency and something goes awry,” she said.

She urged graduates to take pride in being “stewards of health and wellbeing… champions of improvement in health disparities — that we are the front line of health protection, and that we stand strong in the face of public health emergencies like you just experienced here in Boston.”

In welcoming the graduates, Dean Robert Meenan also referenced the marathon tragedy, saying the past month had been “a unique and challenging time” for faculty, staff and students. He said the aftermath of the marathon attack presented several “positive take-home messages” for public health, including the importance of focusing on preparedness efforts; the critical role that government plays in responding to emergencies; and the importance of a “strong sense of community.”

“We saw the importance of community at BUSPH,” Meenan said. “Students turned to one another and to faculty for support. They organized efforts to cope and recover, and to recognize and thank first responders. It was a remarkable, up-close and personal object lesson of how a strong, connected community can rise to a challenge.”

Student speaker Nancy Brady, a graduate of the international health program, shared her experiences working in Uganda, near a hospital emergency clinic, where her days were punctuated by the screams of families mourning the deaths of relatives from AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The helplessness she felt as a visitor confronting those realities humbled and shaped her, she said.

“Anger, fear and frustration can be powerful tools. They can prompt an individual to change his or her behavior or take action,” she said. “We are in public health because we refuse to accept the world as it is today. . . The complexity and the severity of the issues require all hands on deck — and nobody gets a pass.”

A number of faculty and students received awards for teaching and learning. They included:

•  James Wolff, associate professor of international health: the Norman A. Scotch Award for Excellence in Teaching;
•  Michael Grodin, professor of health law, bioethics & human rights: the Faculty Career Award in Research and Scholarship;
•  Jody Beth Grundman: the Leonard H. Glantz Award for Academic Excellence;
•  Jacqueline Nicole Milton: Dean’s Award for Student Research;
•  Jennifer Foth: Award for Student Excellence in Public Health Practice;
•  Laura A. Pugliese: Rex Fendall Award for Excellence in Public Health Writing;
•  Courtney Cook Carignan: Katherine M. Skinner Memorial Prize for Commitment to the Study of Women’s Health Issues;
•  Molly Anne Higgins-Biddle: Herb Kayne Prize for Excellence in Biostatistics;
•  Katherine E. Sours: Dr. William B. Patterson Memorial Prize for Excellence in Environmental & Occupational Health;
•  Seth Kuranz: Dr. Theodore Colton Prize for Excellence in Epidemiology;
•  Julian D’Achille, Kathleen Anne King and Molly E. Marino: Allan R. Meyers Memorial Prize for Excellence in Health Services;
•  CarmenLeah Ascensio: John Snow, Inc. Award in International Health

Submitted by: Lisa Chedekel

chedekel@bu.edu