Eighty-four Graduate from the Quinnipiac University School of Medicine

Press release

HAMDEN - Dr. Richard Levin, former president and CEO of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, urged Quinnipiac University’s Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine Class of 2025 to cast aside doubts and embrace thee future as physicians with the power to champion humanistic healthcare amid these uncertain times.

Levin, a former president of Yale University, addressed to the 84 graduates at M&T Bank Arena on Friday afternoon before Dr. Ellen Pearlman, senior associate dean for education at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, led them in reciting the Quinnipiac Netter Physician’s Pledge to mark the symbolic end of their academic journeys.

But learning and growing as compassionate physicians is a journey that never really ends — an ethos shared by the Netter School and the Gold Foundation.

“This is a very difficult time in the history of America, in the history of medicine, in the history of the world,” said Levin, who currently serves as a senior adviser to the president of the Gold Foundation. “Trust in doctors and nurses has fallen dramatically since the pandemic. For the prior 100 years, these two professions were the most trusted. This is one of your mandates, shared by the 26,000 graduates of American medical schools this year — to restore this trust.”

Noting the barriers that technology can create between doctors and patients, Levin stressed the importance of being a bedside presence.

“The care and compassion that you first learned here will raise you up for the rest of your lives,” Levin said.

Quinnipiac President Judy Olian lauded the graduates “for adapting and adjusting with grace and generosity” to the COVID-19 pandemic and the myriad challenges it presented inside and outside the classroom. She challenged them to keep drawing upon “the resilience to turn adversity into advantage.”

Olian also congratulated Dean Phillip Boiselle, MD, who “spearheaded an equity-focused strategic plan,” raised $1.6 million for scholarships and achieved numerous other milestones across his distinguished tenure.

“When I look at this class, I see the trailblazers of tomorrow who are prepared to embrace accelerated change, and to do more than that — you will lead change in fields of medicine, including: internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, psychiatry, radiology, neurology and more,” Olian said. “And you will practice with the humanistic values, the driven purpose to heal others, the passion for achieving health equity in access and treatment, all that you’ve internalized through your time at Quinnipiac.”