Marcella Nunez-Smith '96

Founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine, chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force

“Although we aren’t gathering in person on our beautiful campus, I deeply cherish this opportunity to gather with members of the Swarthmore community in this way, and to lean into the countless memories we made in this place, to reinvigorate our shared values, and to remind ourselves of our charge as recipients of this phenomenal education. Personally, I am forever grateful for my time at Swarthmore, in and out of the classroom. This learning community of other students, faculty, staff, and the broader commmunity members fueled my drive to approach health through the lens of equity, gifting me the foundational knowledge and tools to stay true to our North Star vision anchored in health equity and social justice.

“A Swarthmore education offers us these tools and conveys the urgent responsibility to ask deep questions about our world and the way we will live in it. How do particular histories of marginalization and discrimination shape our contemporary life? How we do we create resilient and equitable systems? And how do we respect and relate to one another as members of a community, cherishing both our differences and our commonalities?” More [beginning at 17:00].