After Commencement, Looking to the Months Ahead.

Thank you to many of you who have reached out with comments about last month’s SPH TM. Our purpose in enhancing communication is to more closely engage our entire school community, aiming to invite you all to join in creating our future together. To that end, during the past month, our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have participated in our strategic thinking roundtables, and our faculty and staff spent a day on May 19 discussing ideas that emerged from the roundtables so that we may engage them more fully in coming months. There will be more opportunities for engagement with our strategic thinking in the fall.

Also this past month, we had our annual graduation ceremonies, featuring an inspiring commencement address by Monica Bharel (MED’94), commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. At SPH, we aspire to lead the effort to improve the health of the public, now and into the future, by generating ideas, teaching those ideas to the next generation, and translating them for people who can make change happen on a global scale. Bharel is at the forefront of those who can make change happen, and it was our distinct pleasure to host her for our Commencement. We also awarded our annual student awards and awards to our star teachers, researchers, and staff, as summarized in one of the items in SPH TM. We bid farewell to our graduating students, welcoming them to our ranks as alumni as they remain part of our school community.

Speaking of our alumni, the Development and Alumni Relations Office is currently seeking nominations for this year’s Distinguished Alumni Awards. The awards acknowledge those alumni who have made outstanding contributions and exemplify dedication to the field of public health on a local, national, or global level. This year’s awards will be presented at the SPH APHA alumni reception in Chicago in November. Nominations can be made online and will be accepted through June 30; you can also view the complete list of past recipients. For any questions, please contact Michael O’Brien at 617-638-4016 or mobrien1@bu.edu.

As we head into the summer months, we continue to have much going on but also slow down a bit, pausing to reflect, regroup, and look ahead to the 2015–2016 academic year. SPH TM will pause for July and August, returning on September 6.

Until then, my very best to all for the summer months.

Warm regards,

Sandro

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Professor
@sandrogalea