Friends,

I am delighted to let you know that Mandy K. Cohen, MD, MPH, the former Secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, will be our Commencement speaker Saturday, May 14, when we will celebrate and award diplomas to about 270 graduates in an outdoor ceremony on our Quad for the first time in three years. 

During the ceremony, former Secretary Cohen will be presented with the Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa. The degree and selection as speaker recognizes her thoughtful leadership in managing the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trustees approved the honorary degree following a nomination process and endorsement by the faculty. 

Secretary Cohen was recognized as a national leader during her four years as the state’s chief public health official in the administration of Gov. Roy Cooper. In the final two years she had a prominent role in encouraging North Carolinians to wear masks, wait 6 feet apart, wash hands, and get vaccinated during the pandemic.

In January, she announced that she would enter the private sector as Executive Vice President of a health-care company, Aledade, and Chief Executive Officer of its new health-services unit, Aledade Care Solutions. 

Guilford College has conscientiously taught its students to advocate for the well-being of others and recently developed a major in Public Health. It seems particularly fitting to grant former Secretary Cohen this honorary degree and have her speak to our graduating class.

In February 2019, Modern Healthcare magazine named her one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare. She was awarded the Leadership in Public Health Practice Award from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2020. That award cited her use of data and ability to communicate with empathy, compassion, and transparency.

A graduate of Cornell University, former Secretary Cohen received her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at the UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.

I am looking forward to my first Commencement at Guilford and appreciate the important work of the campus-wide committee steering the planning. It will be a great day for our graduates, their families, and the entire community.

Sincerely,
Kyle Farmbry
President