By Kat Procyk
Photography by Rayni Shiring, University of Pittsburgh
Despite frigid temperatures and snow-covered roads, hundreds of University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences graduates and their families and friends turned out to celebrate at Pitt’s 2025 Winter Commencement ceremony on Dec. 14, 2025, at the Petersen Events Center.
Of the 1,133 students in the health sciences schools (Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Public Health) honored for earning degrees between May and December, 333 were listed as receiving their diplomas in person.
This year, Pitt’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences led the health sciences with a total of 404 graduate and 17 undergraduate students.
The commencement speaker, the Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, highlighted the importance of innovation in driving human progress. She discussed the current technological revolutions in digital, biotechnology, nanotechnology and cognitive sciences. She noted that BioForge, Pitt’s biomanufacturing center meant to accelerate the development and production of cell and gene therapies and other precision medicines, is the epitome of that progress and strengthens Pittsburgh’s ecosystem of trusted collaborations and partnerships.
"It is you and you alone who must ultimately make your life decisions with clarity, wisdom and compassion on the paths you choose to follow at the crossroads of life and what contributions you will make for humankind, as did the countless generations before you across the suite of human history,” said the Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, during Pitt’s winter commencement address.
She acknowledged the benefits of advanced technology, but maintained that it can never substitute for human creativity or the capacity to unravel complex problems.
“As a creative human innovator, you are endowed with the God-given capability of correlation, learning to see and predict the unseen and to connect the dots to guide your life journey,” Wince-Smith said. “While artificial intelligence can and will identify many of the markers and guideposts and options along the way,” she said, “it is you and you alone who must ultimately make your life decisions with clarity, wisdom and compassion on the paths you choose to follow at the crossroads of life and what contributions you will make for humankind, as did the countless generations before you across the suite of human history.”
Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine, introduced each of the six health sciences schools and congratulated the graduates on their accomplishments.
The event concluded with graduates, their families and friends joyfully singing “Sweet Caroline” as blue and gold confetti cascaded from the ceiling.
View photos from Pitt’s Winter 2025 Commencement below.
