Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine graduates ninth MD class

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (Geisinger Commonwealth) conferred Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees upon the 98 students who compose Geisinger Commonwealth’s graduating Class of 2021. The commencement ceremony was held Sunday, May 2 beginning at 11 a.m. at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono. The in-person ceremony was limited to the graduates and two guests with a live stream of the ceremony available. 

Steven J. Scheinman, MD, Geisinger Commonwealth’s president and dean, welcomed guests and graduates. Greetings were offered on behalf of the school’s board of directors by board chair, Virginia McGregor, and also by Geisinger CEO, Jaewon Ryu, MD.

William Jeffries, PhD, vice president for academic affairs and vice dean of medical education, together with Dr. Scheinman, presented the commencement speaker, Karen De Salvo, MD, with an honorary Doctor of Medical Arts degree.

Dr. DeSalvo is the Chief Health Officer of Google Health. She leads a team of health professionals at Google who provide clinical guidance for the development of inclusive research, products and services. Prior to joining Google, Dr. DeSalvo was national coordinator for health information technology and acted as the assistant secretary for health in the Obama Administration. During her time at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. DeSalvo focused on creating a more consumer-oriented, transparent and value-based health system. Dr. DeSalvo served as the New Orleans Health Commissioner following Hurricane Katrina. Prior to that she was vice dean for community affairs and health policy at the Tulane School of Medicine where she was a practicing internal medicine physician, educator, researcher and leader. She serves on the Council of the National Academy of Medicine.

Aditya Eturi, MD, a member of the Class of 2017 and chief resident in internal medicine at Brown University, offered greetings from Geisinger Commonwealth’s growing Alumni Society.

In his final remarks as Geisinger Commonwealth president and dean, Dr. Scheinman, who is retiring this year, reflected on his long career as a physician and as a dean. He noted that a career in medicine “offers the opportunity to combine elements of some of the noblest pursuits available to humans: healing, teaching and scientific inquiry.” He said, however, that good doctors, if they really care about their patients, “will find that they have more to teach you about life, and illness, and suffering, and death, and hope, than you could possibly learn from teachers, or books, or even online.” He concluded the ceremony by saying, “This institution has come a long way in the past 9 years. We’ve overcome challenges and brought the school to a place that even our audacious and visionary founders could not have envisioned... It has been my great honor to have played a part in this school’s upward trajectory, which I have every confidence will continue.”

The live-stream recording of the ceremony will be posted at geisinger.edu/commencement when available. 

About Geisinger
Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the non-profit system generates $10 billion in annual revenues across 134 care sites - including 10 hospital campuses, and Geisinger Health Plan, with 600,000 members in commercial and government plans. The Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 5,000 medical professionals annually and conducts more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With 26,000 employees, including 1,600 employed physicians, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers with an estimated economic impact of $14 billion to the state’s economy. On March 31, 2024, Geisinger became the first member of Risant Health, a new nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country.  Learn more at geisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.