Dear Graduates,

I am incredibly proud of you as you have achieved a major milestone in your careers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The world is looking to you – our generation’s newest public health leaders, scholars, and practitioners - for guidance as we navigate and overcome the physiological, psychological, social, and financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic through public health.

I have had the great honor and pleasure of meeting many of you and am confident that you will enter the next stage of your careers equipped with the skills, knowledge, and values to enhance public health locally, nationally, and globally.

I ask you to take your next steps with these ideals in mind, representing the ethos of our School. Dedicate yourselves to addressing the most vexing health problems that challenge the people of New Jersey, the United States, and the world. As we have seen with COVID-19, our global world requires a unified response to public health challenges. Recognize that we, in the United States, have as much to learn from our international colleagues as they can learn from us. Remember that global public health is as much about public health in other countries as it is about the health of immigrant and ethnic communities within our own cities and states. Stay true to the notion that health disparities are driven by complex synergies of biomedical elements, behaviors, psychosocial conditions, and structural inequities. Direct your efforts to help those whom our society marginalizes and oppresses as they are at a heightened susceptibility to pathogens like COVID-19. And most importantly, never forget that our work is focused on humanity.

The current COVID-19 pandemic is the crisis of the moment, and others will surely follow. It will be up to you to use your skills, passion, and knowledge to improve the health of all people and in all places. If you remember that notion, your work will be honest, stellar, and respected. It will be the type of work that matters. In the end, stay true to “keeping the ‘public’ in public health.”

I wish you my most heartfelt congratulations. Visit us often, and keep us abreast of your accomplishments. The Rutgers School of Public health is now part of your DNA and you are part of ours.

Sincerely,

Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH
Dean, Professor & Director Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Prevention Studies
Rutgers School of Public Health

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