BUSPH Commencement Speaker Urges Graduates to Become 'Dauntless Do-ers'

Published on Monday, 20 May 2013 20:25

As former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and current president of Merck's vaccine division, Dr. Julie Gerberding inhabits a world of long-winded conference calls and consensus-building meetings.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she has been known to interject, "people are dying. Let's step up. Let's get the decision made. Let's move on."

But in offering advice to the 2013 class of the BU School of Public Health, Gerberding urged the 250 assembled graduates to temper their passion for change with patience, saying: "Without patience, passion can be reckless, even dangerous . . . It is important to balance the accelerator pedal with the brake of patience, because that is what ultimately helps us to be effective."