The UC Berkeley School of Public Health celebrated the class of 2026 before an exuberant crowd on Tuesday, May 19, at the Greek Theatre.
The graduates—or as Dean Michael C. Lu called them, “the changemakers”—earned 26 doctoral degrees, 246 master’s degrees, and 174 baccalaureate degrees.
The theme for the day, outlined by keynote speaker Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH ’88, was “public health is not a luxury.” And the inspiration came courtesy of Desmond-Hellman and other speakers who have each achieved remarkable “firsts” in their careers and education.
Graduate student speaker Bhavya Joshi is a global public health researcher who is passionate about advancing women’s health—and is the first in her family to receive a doctorate. She is the winner of the Meredith A. Minkler Award, given to a graduating student who demonstrates exceptional commitment to community organizing, community-based research, social justice, and/or advocacy.
In her commencement speech, Joshi thanked her family, especially her mother, whom she said, “made the quiet, revolutionary choice to refuse to pass on the very structures that once confined her, and invested in her daughter’s dreams instead… That choice made me a first-generation student.”
“It is on the shoulders of many such women in my journey that I stand today. And it is in their honor that I walk out of this room committed to doing the same,” Joshi said.
Dr. Joseph O’Neill, MD, MPH ’83, who received the 2026 Alum of the Year Award, was selected based on his outstanding contributions to the field of public health. He was the first director of the Ryan White Program and the architect of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a White House initiative credited with saving over 25 million lives. Under President George W. Bush, Dr. O’Neill also served as director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy; and was one of the first openly gay men on the White House Domestic Policy Council, a post which put him in the crosshairs of advocacy groups on all sides.
Dr. Desmond-Hellman, whose career in medicine, science, and philanthropy has spanned more than 30 years, has dedicated her life to improving the human condition through innovation. She was the first female chancellor of UCSF and spent 14 years at Genetech, as president of product development, where she led the development of two of the first gene-targeted therapies for cancer: Avastin and Herceptin.
Dr. Desmond-Hellmann’s advice to the graduates included an appeal to take a broad view of public health.
“Too frequently in health we overemphasize individual benefits,” she said. “For example, we overvalue each individual’s benefits from a vaccine and undervalue community benefits. I challenge you to change that balance, ensuring public health’s emphasis on broader benefits to communities and populations. Getting that balance right provides the best chance for all of us to lead healthy and productive lives.”
In exhorting students not to be afraid to challenge the status quo, Dean Lu noted that two of the most transformative ideas in medicine and public health in the last 100 years—social determinants of health, and community-based participatory research—were born here at UC Berkeley.
So as you go forward, Dr. Lu said, ‘Be the last to accept the world as it is. Be the first to ask, “How can we make it better?”
