My name is Roz Segal, and I am the HMS Dean for Graduate Education. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Harvard, and the beginning of your Masters programs. HMS graduate education has the overall mission: To teach, advise, and nurture a diverse, inclusive community of scholars that generate and disseminate new discoveries in life sciences to improve health and knowledge for all. And that represents the goal of our Master’s programs. The Master’s programs here are diverse - from the macroscopic view of those studying global health, to the microscopic genomic sequences addressed by those in the Master’s in Biomedical Informatics. What you share is that all of you are focused on learning a set of knowledge and skills that will enable you to develop your career in a new direction. We are here to help you towards that goal - in classes, in interactions with others in your fields, and, in your capstone or thesis projects. You will each be enrolled for 1, 2, or more years. But we hope that the experiences here will inform your lives over the long term. The scientific, medical and educational resources available to you here at Harvard are outstanding - but it is a big place, and sometimes it can be difficult to find what you need. In addition to your Program heads and administrators, Johanna Gutlerner, The Associate Dean for Graduate Education, Kim Lincoln, Director of Administration and Student Affairs for the Master’s programs, Gabriella Calderón, the Master’s Program Coordinator, and I are all available to help you find what you need. I encourage you to get to know us by taking a moment to watch the videos in the Meet the Graduate Education Team section in this orientation course, and to get to know the other students in your program and in the other Masters programs - they will be colleagues for years to come, and will help you now and in the future. The last few years have been a time of great complexity for us all. The global COVID pandemic has focused attention on major challenges in health care and science, and this time has also brought expanded awareness to issues of equity and ethics. I am sure that this has impacted all of you, and it has affected us at HMS. This year, we are looking forward to what appears to be the continued lessening of the threat from COVID and the enhanced ability for us all to engage with others in person. Whether your individual program is in person, or online, our goals are to offer each of you the best possible training. Welcome to Harvard! Fondly,
Roz Segal