2017 UCLA FSPH Commencement

The Fielding School of Public Health celebrated 235 graduating students at the UCLA FSPH Commencement Ceremony in Royce Hall. With more than one thousand family members, partners, friends, students, staff and faculty in attendance, degrees were conferred by Fielding School Dean Jody Heymann.

Dean Heymann led the ceremony and encouraged students to "Pursue your moonshot," and in that pursuit to "remember Martin Luther King Jr.’s words that the long arc of history ‘bends toward justice.’”

The 2017 UCLA FSPH keynote speaker Dr. Helene Gayle, chief executive officer of McKinsey Social Initiative, gave a moving speech that included reminding graduates of their opportunities to help move justice forward. “With all you’ve learned in public health…you have powerful new tools to make a difference in the health and wellbeing of thousands and probably even hundreds of thousands of people,” Gayle said. She urged students to take an empowering stance, and shared, “We need your courage, your commitment, your will to build the just world that we so desperately need.”