Before she becomes the 11th president of Boston University this summer, Harvard Medical School alumna Melissa Gilliam will deliver the keynote speech at the HMS/Harvard School of Dental Medicine Class Day ceremony on May 23.
“I am looking forward to meeting the graduating class and congratulating these doctors on their tremendous accomplishment,” Gilliam said. “HMS provides a singular and transformational medical education, and I am honored to participate in this important milestone.”
Spending time with HMS/HSDM students is not unusual for Gilliam; her son, Ben Grobman, is a member of the HMS Class of 2025.
Gilliam has sought to address significant societal challenges as a physician, researcher, educator, and administrator. Her scholarship focuses on developing interventions to promote adolescent health and well-being.
She has built a reputation as a national leader in faculty recruitment and student success and as a champion of diversity and inclusion. She was the first Black provost at The Ohio State University and will be the first woman and first Black president of Boston University when she assumes the role on July 1.
From scholarship to leadership
An award-winning interdisciplinary researcher in medicine, public health, and the humanities, Gilliam became interested in adolescent health after seeing how many teenagers become pregnant again within a year of giving birth.
Her research into the systems that influenced this phenomenon led to her becoming the chief of family planning and contraceptive research and leading the Program in Gynecology for Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults at the University of Chicago. She also founded the university’s Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health.
During her 16 years at the University of Chicago, Gilliam served as professor of obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics, the Ellen H. Block Distinguished Service Professor of Health Justice, and vice provost.
She then moved to Ohio State to become its executive vice president and provost.
She says the move to administration was motivated by the same desire she had to become a physician and professor: the opportunity to address some of the major issues facing the world today.
Gilliam told WBUR's Radio Boston in October 2023, “Universities produce knowledge, but they also produce knowledge in the service of others. And that idea of advancing the lives of young people and knowledge creation are core to what drives me.”
Career snapshot
Gilliam received a bachelor of arts in English literature from Yale University and a master of arts in philosophy and politics from the University of Oxford.
She graduated with an MD from HMS in 1993 and went on to earn a master of public health from the University of Illinois Chicago. She completed her internship in general surgery at the University of Chicago and her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University.
Gilliam’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, among others.
She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, serves on the board of governors of Argonne National Laboratories, and has held advisory appointments with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Get more information about graduation events and Class Day ceremonies, including Master's graduation ceremony speaker Elizabeth (Betsy) Nabel. The page will be updated regularly with graduation-related news and student profiles.
Personal Journeys, Common Purpose
Celebrating the accomplishments of the Class of 2024
