Marie Bernard is keynote at CCNY's CUNY Med's 2023 BS Commencement and White Coat Ceremony

Marie A. Bernard, MD is the keynote speaker at The CUNY School of Medicine (CUNY Med) at The City College of New York's 2023 BS Commencement and White Coat Ceremony. She addressed 75 Medical Doctor Candidates (The CUNY Med MD Class of 2027), their families, faculty, staff, and students.

Dr. Bernard is the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity (COSWD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she leads a full range of talent to promote scientific creativity, diversity, inclusiveness, and equity throughout the organization. As head of the NIH’s COSWD, Dr. Bernard provides strategic leadership for several transformative NIH initiatives, including developing and implementing the 2023-2027 NIH-wide Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) and serving as cochair of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director Working Group on Diversity, the NIH Steering Committee Working Group on DEIA, and the NIH UNITE Initiative to identify and address any structural racism that may exist within the NIH and throughout the biomedical and behavioral workforce. 

The combined BS Commencement and White Coat Ceremony, which took place on Thursday, August 3, 2023, celebrates the completion of the students’ undergraduate education. It also formally welcomes them to their first year of medical school and to the medical profession as student doctors. The ceremony will also include a special address from The City University of New York CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez who has focused his tenure on championing educational equity across the University system.  

“The entire CUNY community joins Dean Green and Dr. Bernard in commemorating this milestone moment for the 75 members of the CUNY School of Medicine Class of 2027,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We are very proud of these future doctors and researchers who embody the great diversity of our City and are motivated by a deep-seated desire to bring needed treatment to underserved communities and eradicate long-standing disparities in health care.”  

For 50 years, CUNY Med has been a national leader in addressing and eliminating educational and healthcare inequities in New York City and beyond, and ensuring representation in medicine. CUNY Med is dedicated to producing health professionals who are underrepresented in medicine and ranks number one in New York State in producing African American physicians and number two in the New York State in producing Latinx physicians. Eighty-three percent of students are bilingual and multilingual. 

“It is vital that we continue to strive for a diverse, inclusive workforce that allows individuals to contribute the breadth of their talents to help scientific organizations solve the world’s most critical issues,” said Dr. Marie Bernard. “CUNY Med is not just training excellent medical students, but empowering leaders with a curriculum and clinical training that educates our future doctors and researchers in fully understanding and helping to change health disparities and healthcare inequities.”

The CUNY School of Medicine, which provides an iconic seven-year BS/MD curriculum (which includes an accelerated three-year Pre-Med Sophie Davis program and a four-year MD program) and its historic and highly selective Physician Assistant program, are transforming the healthcare system in New York City. 

“Thursday’s glorious ceremony and our exceptional graduates proudly demonstrate that CUNY School of Medicine’s Healers, Leaders, and Scholars changing the face and the future of medicine” said, Carmen Renée Green, MD, Dean, CUNY School of Medicine. “We are honored to have Dr. Marie Bernard tell her inspirational story from physician to geriatrician to researcher to Chief Officer at the NIH – and share her insights gained from leading and promoting diversity and equity efforts for one of the world’s largest and most prominent research organizations. We are equally humbled to have CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez share his motivational message about the importance of equity, access, inclusive excellence, community, and advocacy for leadership in health and healthcare.”  

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.