To the UMB Community:

The spring semester has been in session only a few weeks, but already we're planning for commencement. A brand new commencement website has launched with all the information you'll need to plan your celebration.

We're starting a new tradition in 2019. Instead of the Universitywide commencement ending UMB's multiday graduation ceremonies, this year it begins them. On the morning of Thursday, May 16, UMB graduates will gather at Royal Farms Arena to receive their diplomas and commemorate this hard-won achievement. Each school's convocations and ceremonies will be held following commencement.

I'm delighted to announce that our commencement speaker is Barbara Pierce Bush, co-founder of Global Health Corps, a nonprofit developing a global community of young leaders dedicated to achieving health equity worldwide. Ms. Bush says her work in global health is inspired by that of her father, former U.S. President George W. Bush, whose administration launched PEPFAR to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. PEPFAR is now credited with saving more than 17 million lives. I look forward to her talk.

Commencement is, hands down, the best day of UMB's year. For graduates, it marks the culmination of a lot of hard work -- and the beginning of so much more. I can't imagine there's anything greater to celebrate.

Sincerely,

Jay A. Perman, MD
President