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Harvard Chan School Class of 2026, are you ready?

Next week’s graduation event lineup:

Tuesday - Harvard Chan Awards Presentation and Celebration
Wednesday - Harvard Chan Convocation
Thursday - Harvard University Commencement Morning Exercises

Learn more and watch our graduation events live at hsph.me/graduation

#HarvardChan26

In just one week, our Class of 2026 will be celebrating their graduation from Harvard Chan School.

Among them is Hebatalla (Heba) Mohamed, SM ’26, whom we first met at her orientation. Reflecting on how much she has learned and changed in her time at Harvard Chan School since then, Heba says, “that felt like watching my little sister.”

We can’t wait to watch Heba and the rest of her class walk across the Convocation stage! hsph.me/graduation

#HarvardChan26

The 79th World Health Assembly is currently being held in Geneva, Switzerland, with health leaders from around the world setting global health priorities and discussing how to strengthen health systems amid public health emergencies, conflict, climate pressures, and growing humanitarian needs.

At our recent Harvard Chan Studio event hosted with the @HarvardHumanitarian Initiative, @who's Altaf Musani highlighted the ongoing need for both public health and medical lenses when engaging in humanitarian work. “In the last two decades, that public health injection of resources, and public health schools, and thinking is shrinking. We need to readjust that balance.“

At the first Women’s Health Student Summit at the School, participants discussed the need for a new approach to the way women’s health is studied and clinically practiced—one that encompasses the wide range of health concerns affecting women across different life stages.

“Women spend years navigating systems that often fail to recognize how conditions affect them differently, uniquely, or disproportionately. And yet, our responses remain fragmented,” said Summit co-chair Aracely Guzman, MPH ’26, a physician from Mexico, in her opening remarks. “We separate maternal health from chronic diseases. We separate sexual and public health from mental health. We separate clinical care from the social realities that shape health in the first place. But women do not experience life inside silos, and their health should not be siloed either.”

Learn more about the summit at the link in our bio.

We are delighted to share that Harvard Chan School’s 2026 Convocation Student Speaker will be Rajeshwari Subramanian, MPH ‘26.

Rajeshwari believes the next wave of progress in healthcare and the life sciences depends on whether emerging technologies reach the people who need them. During her time at Harvard, she was a founding member of @sciencetopeopleorg, a nonprofit developing technology that helps health communicators counter misinformation with peer-reviewed research. She was also part of a winning team at the 2025 @HarvardHSI Hackathon and served as vice president of the AI in Healthcare student organization.

#HarvardChan26

At a time when humanitarian systems around the world are facing major funding challenges, why do students still choose to pursue work in humanitarian and global health?

Michael VanRooyen, Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, shares what continues to inspire students to enter the field — from the opportunity to serve communities in crisis to the ability to create meaningful change through humanitarian work.

Watch the full conversation, Global Humanitarian and Disaster Management One Year After the Dismantling of USAID, on the @harvardchansph YouTube channel.

#GlobalHealth #HumanitarianHealth #HumanitarianAid #PublicHealth #DisasterResponse

Chimba Sanga, MPH ’26, is using his new training in epidemiology to improve HIV and TB care at home in Zambia.

In Zambia, he worked as a doctor at a major hospital, then as a medical officer in the U.S. CDC’s Zambia country office, monitoring PEPFAR-funded HIV and TB care.

“When I started working with the CDC, I realized I needed training in epidemiology to help me do my job well,” Sanga said. That realization led him to Harvard Chan School’s hybrid, part-time master of epidemiology program.

“What appealed to me about Harvard Chan School’s program was not only its academic excellence, but also that it’s structured for people to continue to work while they study,” Sanga said. “Each year I’ve spent a few weeks on campus, but otherwise I’ve continued living and working in Zambia, taking online classes from there and implementing what I’m learning in real time.”

#HarvardChan26

“I feel like myself times a million.”

Two years ago, we spoke to Ilahi Creary at her Harvard Chan School Orientation. Today, she’s getting ready to graduate with an MPH in Health Policy. Ilahi was a highly active student during her time at Harvard, serving as a student ambassador, joining the student government, and working as a research assistant for faculty member John McDonough.

We are looking forward to welcoming Ilahi and the rest of the Class of 2026 to Harvard Chan School’s global community of alumni in just two weeks!

Stenoa, a company founded by Jeremy Levett, MPH ’27, was selected as one of 25 finalists in the 2026 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge and went on to win $25,000 in the Student Health Care + Life Sciences Track.

Levett recently spoke about his company, a hospital operating system for time-critical, lifesaving care, and how Harvard Chan School and the @harvardinnovationlabs Challenge are helping him move to the next stage. “I believe that the future of lifesaving care won’t only come from new drugs or devices, but from building the infrastructure to deliver the care that already exists, consistently and to everyone. That conviction is what brought me here, and what the MPH is strengthening every day.“

Maggie Sullivan, director of the FXB Program on Immigrant Families and Unhoused Communities and a primary care provider in Boston, explains how immigrants’ health challenges today will have long-lasting impacts.

At a recent symposium, Yerby Fellows presented research on mental health benefits from expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the impact of a stress coping strategy known as “John Henryism” on Black Americans’ health, and patterns of alcohol use and HIV risk in South Africa.

The Yerby Fellowship Program provides a bridge between academic training in public health-related fields and entry-level faculty positions. The Fellowship honors the late Alonzo Smythe Yerby, MPH ’48, a public health pioneer who helped create Medicare. Yerby served as an associate dean at Harvard Chan School and was its first Black department chair.

Fellows Abdinasir Kaysane Ali, Cameron Wiley, and Domonique Reed were introduced at the Yerby Symposium by their respective faculty mentors: Rita Hamad, Laura Kubzansky, and Jeff Imai-Eaton.

Photo courtesy of Kim Salas Harris: from left, Kim Salas Harris, director of pathway programs and faculty pipeline initiatives, Yerby Fellows Hiwot Zewdie, Abdinasir Ali, Domonique Reed, Cameron Wiley, and Merriah Croston, Bryan Thomas, chief community and belonging officer.

Maggie Sullivan, director of the FXB Program on Immigrant Families and Unhoused Communities and a primary care provider in Boston, describes the impacts of intense immigration enforcement on families and children.

Follow Harvard Chan School to learn more in the next parts of this Q&A with Sullivan 👉 @harvardchansph