As summer arrived in Boston on a blazingly bright and hot day, so too arrived the 2024 Harvard Medical School master’s degree graduates under a tent on the campus Quad on May 22 to celebrate their accomplishments.
Each of the tent’s 20 peaks reflected the sunlight in a different direction. Having pursued research in any of nine different programs, the 245 graduates are poised to take their own careers in many directions.
“You are all bright, talented, and self-starters, and you will continue to be leaders in your fields and in the broader biomedical community,” said Elizabeth Nabel, advisory board chair of OPKO Health and professor of medicine emerita at HMS, in her keynote address. “No matter what path you choose, all of you have the intellect and persistence to be great.”
Training to transform the world
Spirits were high despite the heat. Graduates swapped phones to snap photos with friends and family before the ceremony. Mortarboard caps sported flowers, beads, butterflies, and, in one case, an orange and yellow plush antibody in reference to its wearer’s research. A married couple from Hawaii — who graduated together with master’s degrees in clinical service operations — wore flowered leis.
Ceremony Stories
This year’s graduates hail from 44 countries on six continents. Equipped with their HMS master’s degrees, they will set out to create change in every corner of the globe.
The graduates also ranged in age from 20 to 73. Paul Romain, who had the distinction of being the oldest graduate, earned a master of science in bioethics to add to a decades-long career as a rheumatologist.
“Although we come from many different backgrounds and our work may focus on very different topics, we are all united in our love and passion for exploration, learning, and discovery,” said student speaker Dagny Reese, who earned a master of medical sciences in immunology.
Many of the graduates are already accomplished professionals in their fields and came to HMS for more training in a specific area of interest.
Jawad Saleh, who received a master’s in clinical service operations, is a pharmacist by trade who has dedicated much of his career to a deeply personal cause: the U.S opioid crisis. At HMS, he created a novel opioid stewardship dashboard that health care organizations can use to promote appropriate use of prescribed opioids and reduce risk of opioid misuse.
“I hope to leave my mark one day as an innovative and visionary health care leader and to transform a broken health care system that is getting squeezed from all angles,” he said.
Sarah Lee and Kuuleikuponookealoha Naahielua, a married couple who both graduated with master’s degrees in clinical service operations. Mikio Hayashi was one of only nine graduates to earn a master of medical sciences in medical education this year.
As an associate professor at Kansai Medical University in Hirakata, Japan, he became involved in supporting medical students with disabilities — a topic he decided merited further study. He was attracted to HMS for its commitment to diversity and inclusion, its rigorous research environment, and its global reach.
For his final project, Hayashi investigated factors that contribute to a sense of belonging for medical students with disabilities in Japan and the United States. He is excited to return to Japan to share his findings and to continue working with faculty to make medical schools more accessible to all students.
Dessislava Fessenko, who was awarded a master’s in bioethics, is a lawyer and bioethicist who has been advising on the use of data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence in health care.
Fessenko said she enrolled in the program to get a better understanding of, and actual practice-oriented training in, applied ethics. Her research explored how to achieve fairness in machine learning for diagnostic radiology imaging.
“Both in my applied work and in my research, I always strive to offer actionable guidance and solutions,” Fessenko said. “I really hope to help and serve.”
Torchbearers for trust
In his opening remarks, HMS Dean George Q. Daley praised the graduates for persevering in their studies amid local, national, and global turmoil. He spoke about how trust in science and medicine is faltering in the United States and around the world.
“By nature of your desire to further your careers and bring evidence-based decision-making to the communities you serve, you are some of our foremost torchbearers for trust,” he said.
Daley emphasized three ways the graduates can cultivate trust: centering caregiving as a moral experience, believing patients, and communicating with intelligent openness.
Building on these themes, Nabel called on the graduates to center emotional intelligence in their work — something she considers of utmost importance in a fragmented and fraught political climate.
“We need you to lead us to a higher ground: to listen, to understand, to reach out, to seek consensus, to seek the greater good,” she said.
She urged the audience to embrace humility by recognizing what they don’t know, to respect others by making people feel seen and heard, and to follow their passions by opening themselves up to worthy causes.
Living science
HMS master’s programs have grown in enrollment and range of offerings over the past decade. This year marked the second cohort of graduates from the program in media, medicine, and health. Two new programs, one in therapeutics and one in clinical research, are expected to matriculate their first students in fall 2025. Several programs have virtual options that expand their reach beyond the physical bounds of the institution.
“Each program, in its own way, prepares students to understand and treat disease, to promote health, and to optimize the health care system for diverse patients,” said Rosalind Segal, HMS dean for graduate education, in her welcome address. “These goals are so critical for the future of our society and of the world.”
