>> DEAN ELAINE MORRATO: A
very warm welcome to the
inaugural class of the
Parkinson School of Health
Sciences and Public Health.
Let me say that again.
To the graduates of the
Parkinson School of Health
Sciences and Public Health.
Today is a significant
milestone for you
as well as for us.
A little over a year ago,
Loyola University launched
the Parkinson School.
It was through their
visionary leadership and
their deep commitment to
being persons of others that
Loyola alums, Bob and Betty
Parkinson, along with their
family, made a lead gift
to establish our school.
It was through their
exceptional generosity and
their commitment to the
health sciences and to
public health and to an
entrepreneurial spirit that
the Parkinson are helping us
found our school and educate
the health
workforce of tomorrow.
Parkinson graduates, you are
that health workforce of the
future, all 128
strong of you.
You are the leaders we so
urgently need right now for
the health challenges
we are facing today.
Certainly, you never could
have imagined that upon
graduation in 2020 you would
be entering a world stuck
and struck and hurting from
a global pandemic, amplified
by a nation's legacy of
institutionalized racism and
brought into sharp focus
through the death of George
Floyd in the custody of
Minneapolis police officers.
Our world needs each and
every one of you to combine
both compassion and
scientific knowledge to
action for social
good and change.
I know, for example, that
our -- many of our medical
laboratory scientists who
will be called to be experts
managing labs and running
thousands of COVID-19 tests.
Our public health graduates,
many will be called to lead
efforts to implement contact
tracing and mitigate the
spread of the
SARS coronavirus.
I know our nutrition and
exercise science graduates
will be called to find new
and innovative ways to
maintain nutrition and
physical activity in a time
of social distancing
and economic upheaval.
And our healthcare
administration graduates
will be called to reinvent
how we deliver healthcare in
real time during an
infectious disease outbreak.
But importantly, the public
is also witnessing the value
of having a strong public
health infrastructure and
healthcare system and its
critical role in supporting
one another in the health
and economic resiliency of
our society itself.
I hope that some of you will
contribute your talents and
your expertise and your
energy to advocacy and
shaping policies for
strengthening that fabric of
our health system
and for eliminating its
health disparities.
You know, this year is
another momentous occasion,
the 150th anniversary
since Loyola University
opened its door.
And as I reflect on this
milestone, I also take pause
to note that during the last
century and a half, the
world has persevered through
five global influenza
pandemics, eradicated
smallpox, and established
effective prevention and
control strategies to reduce
the impact of many other
major infectious disease.
This gives me confidence
as we all rise to the
challenge of COVID-19.
Each of us is called to be
a health entrepreneur, that
is, to be agile and identify
new approaches and solutions
and reimagining
how we do our work.
I have such pride in our
health science and public
health professions who are
innovating in real time on
the front lines
at a global scale.
As Loyola graduates,
I challenge you also to
remember in your work to
protect the most vulnerable
in every aspect
of what you do.
The words of our guest
commencement speaker,
Dr. Linda Burnes Bolton, and
her call to action to us to
choose to be
equitable rings so true.
And I know that Loyola
University Chicago as an
institution and as you as
individuals will do the hard
work that's necessary and
needed to address systemic
racism and its negative
effects on health.
So as you move forward from
your time at Parkinson, I
know you may be feeling a
mixture now of emotions --
joy, pride, fear,
uncertainty -- but know also
as the inaugural class of
Parkinson School graduates
you have the knowledge, you
have the tools to lead the
way and to meet the
challenge of our times as
you apply your expertise and
live a Jesuit value of being
a person for others.
We have our trust in you.
So on behalf of Parkinson
Interim Dean, Dr. Kathy
Bobay, our faculty and
staff, and as founding dean,
know that we are all proud
of you, our inaugural class
of Parkinson graduates.
We wish you health,
happiness, and a rewarding
career ahead for you.
I look forward to the day of
welcoming you back to campus
as Parkinson alums, when I
hope I have the opportunity
to shake your hand
and exchange a hug.
I would now like to invite
our student speaker, Lucia
Garcia, to share a message
with the Class of 2020.
>> LUCIA GARCIA: Thank
you, Dean Morrato.
My name is Lucia Garcia, and
I am honored and grateful
for the opportunity to speak
with you at the first-ever
Parkinson School of Health
Sciences and Public Health's
graduation ceremony
for the Class of 2020.
Today we celebrate a new
and incredibly important
milestone in our lives.
We represent diverse and
unique graduates from Loyola
University Chicago who've
completed a rigorous
curriculum that has prepared
us to innovatively address
the challenges in our world.
Since my first semester in
the public health program,
I have been challenged
to delve deeper into
investigation, to better
understand the complex
issues that impact
our communities.
I grew to be increasingly
interested in policy and the
long-term and
deep-rooted impact that it
has on individuals.
I've learned to appreciate
the differing perspectives
of my colleagues, and
I'm grateful for the
opportunities that I've
had to practice scholarly
creativity and exploration.
I'm incredibly grateful to a
dedicated faculty of staff,
who pushed me and my student
colleagues a little further,
inspiring us to think
creatively toward innovative
solutions, to ask the
difficult questions of our
society and of ourselves.
Our Parkinson's faculty have
created an environment that
values students and
prepares them to lead.
Each faculty exhibits true
Ignation values of social
justice, whether it's a
focus on free clinics,
mosquitoes and the
environment, global health,
advocating for historically
disinvested communities,
impacting the health of
vulnerable women and men in
low-resource settings, gun
violence prevention and
advocacy, community
nutrition education, and so
many more areas of focus.
The public health faculty
genuinely care about the
issues that impact
our communities.
They're impressive men and
women, who have lengthy
publication records,
accolades, and awards.
And while these
accomplishments are no doubt
impressive, the most
notable is their unwavering
dedication to students.
Like many of my colleagues,
I balanced several full-time
roles as a part-time
master's and public health
student, including a
full-time career, being a
full-time mom to three
intelligent, strong, and
beautiful girls, and a wife
to a supportive husband.
I'm so very privileged to
have had the opportunity to
be in these roles, but the
most important of these was
being a mom.
My children have inspired me
to persist, to continue to
learn, to question, to
challenge myself and to be a
part of the change required
to ensure that our future
does not continue to be
plagued by inequities.
My girls have taught me that
I cannot stay quiet when
I witness injustice.
They feed my optimism and
provide hope on a daily basis.
My fellow graduates, there
is great weight, substance,
and responsibility
that comes with our
new accomplishment.
I wholeheartedly believe
that it is by no error or
coincidence that we've
reached this milestone
during a uniquely
challenging and
unprecedented moment in our
lives, a time when we've
been met with a pandemic
that has disproportionately
impacted black and brown
communities at an alarmingly
higher rate than white
Americans, a time when black
communities continue to be
unjustly targeted and killed
by oppressive systems of
power that threaten their
health and lives on a daily
basis, a momentous time when
we can no longer conform and
accept that throughout our
history, our nation, and
world have not valued the
lives of some because of
immigrant status, skin
color, income bracket,
sexual identity, or religion.
These events have sharpened
our social justice lens and
enhanced our commitment
to public health and
evidence-based science.
And how will we remember
this uniquely challenging
time, and how will we look
forward with optimism and
hopefulness toward action
and our personal and
professional responsibility
toward one another?
As graduates of a public
health program and as
graduates of a university
committed to social justice
and advocacy of
addressing the needs of our
communities, how will we
be a part of the solution
to achieve equity?
How can we as public health
professionals contribute to
the change in our world that
is crucial to creating an
equitable and healthy
future for our children?
We must empower one another
and be the voices for those
who do not have voices.
The degree we've earned
today has not come
easily or lightly.
It comes with a
responsibility to use the
skills and knowledge that
we've gained, our optimism,
and continued hope and
commit to take action.
We are responsible
for one another.
To the dedicated Loyola
Parkinson's faculty and
staff, our friends and
colleagues, and, most of
all, our families who have
supported us throughout our
journey, I wholeheartedly
thank you for giving us the
tools and support to be
a change in our world.
Thank you, and
congratulations to the
Class of 2020.
I would now like to invite
our keynote speaker,
Dr. Linda Burns Bolton, to
share a message with the
Class of 2020.
>> LINDA BURNES BOLTON: Good
afternoon to each of you and
your loved ones.
It is my pleasure to provide
brief remarks that I hope
will inspire you as you
begin your careers and help
you to achieve everything
that you want to
achieve professionally.
Congratulations to the
graduates and to the
outstanding faculty and
staff of Loyola University.
To the parents and family
members, I hope you will
celebrate with the graduates
and join the faculty and
staff as we acknowledge
their achievements today and
in the future.
My remarks will be brief,
but I hope you will walk
away feeling inspired to
do more to care for all.
That's the essence
of equity, so choose
to be equitable.
Darci Graves, from the
Office of Minority Health at
the Center for Medicaid and
Medicare Services, stated in
2019 that equity is a
fundamental part of quality.
I agree.
It is essential that we work
towards achieving health
equity for all.
What does that mean?
We must go be beyond
competency training and the
stratification of
clinical performance.
We must commit
to the creation of a
culture of equity.
The implementation of
quality improvement
processes must underlie
all dimensions of quality.
It is essential that
we make equity an integral
part of quality.
We must design interventions
aimed at improving health
outcomes with
an equity lens.
We must implement,
evaluate, and adjust
interventions continuously.
We must retain and sustain
interventions that are
effective and discard those
that are not as effective.
We don't tend to do that
as quickly as we should.
We must provide health and
social services that are
equitable for all.
This will require that we
commit to closing the health
disparities gaps that
exist in our nation and
around the world.
The Institute for Healthcare
Improvement identified the
following framework to
achieve health equity
for the populace.
First, we must commit to
making health equity
a strategic priority.
Second, we must develop
structures and processes to
support our efforts to
achieve health equity for all.
Third, we must develop
specific strategies to
address the multiple
determinants of health so
that healthcare
organizations and
professionals can have
a direct impact on the
delivery of services
and healthy behaviors.
Fourth, we must commit
to the elimination of
institutional racism.
There, I said it.
It exists.
Anyone who thinks it
doesn't exist has their head
in the sand.
Fifth, we must partner with
community organizations to
improve health and assure
that the provision of
equitable health and social
welfare services exists
in our country.
Health equity as defined by
the Kaiser Family Foundation
is the absence of avoidable,
unfair, or remediable
differences among groups of
people, whether groups are
defined socially,
economically,
geographically, or by other
means of stratification.
We must commit, as stated by
Professor Margaret Whitehead
of the World Health
Organization Collaborating
Center for Policy Research,
to work to assure that all
individuals have a fair
opportunity to attain their
health potential and no
one is disadvantaged from
achieving their
health potential.
It is my hope that each of
you will use your education
to be of
assistance to others.
As members of the social and
health professions, I urge
you to commit to achieving
health equity for all.
Commit to fair and
just health practices.
Commit to the education of
health professionals about
the value of
health equity for all.
Support public policies
that are actionable.
Support programs to close
the gaps in healthcare
for all people.
Adopt and support programs
that are respectable and
inclusive of all people.
Foster and support the use
of cultural referents in the
design and implementation of
health and social services.
We must be willing to call
the circle, invite diverse
voices to the table, and be
willing to be open to others
as we seek to achieve
health equity for all.
We must be willing to call
out and speak out about
unequitable services
for all people.
We must, as committed
members of society, insist
that all should have equal
opportunity to attain and
sustain health
throughout their life.
As we close out the WHO year
of the nurse and midwife,
let us commit to the
provision of equitable
healthcare for all.
As learned members of
society, I urge you, I beg
you to stand up and demand
that healthcare services be
provided to all and for
all people in the world.
Congratulations on your
achievements, and I know you
will be successful.
I look forward to learning
about your contributions as
members of the health
and social services.
Thank you very much.
>> DEAN ELAINE MORRATO:
And we would now like to
recognize the 2020 graduates
from the Parkinson's School
of Health Sciences
and Public Health.
Congratulations.
>> DAVID SHOHAM: Thank
you, Dean Morrato.
My name is David Shoham,
and I am the director of
the MPH program.
I am honored to recognize
members of the Class of 2020.
I would now like to present
candidates for the degrees
of Medical Doctor and
Master of Public Health.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
I would now
like to present the
candidates for the degree
of Master of Public Health.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
I would now
like to present the
candidates for the degree
of Master of Science in
Dietetics Certificate,
Food and Nutrition.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
I would now
like to present the
candidates for the degree
of Master of Science in
Exercise Science.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
I would now like to present
the candidates for the degree of
Master of Science in
Medical Laboratory Science.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
I would now
like to present the
candidates for the degree
of Bachelor of Science in
Exercise Science.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
I would now
like to present the
candidates for the degree
of Bachelor of Science in
Healthcare Administration.
[Reading of Graduate Names]
