Contact: Crystal Drake, Office of Strategic Communications
Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine alum, Rear Admiral Kis Robertson Hale, delivered keynote address.
Tuskegee University turned the tassel on the largest number of science-based PhDs conferred in one ceremony in recent university history as it continues to move swiftly toward Carnegie R2 and eventually R1 status. Twenty-two PhDs were hooded, 90 master’s degrees awarded and 51 new doctors of veterinary medicine crossed the stage at the Daniel “Chappie” James arena on May 2.
In his welcome remarks, Dr. Mark A. Brown, president and CEO, greeted the students as “the first graduating class of the Renaissance Era.” This is Tuskegee University’s renewed commitment to founding principles that are being reimagined through modern tools and technology and that remain an everlasting testament to the wisdom of founding principal Booker T. Washington who insisted that Tuskegee’s purpose was to build future generations of economically mobile, community-centered problem-solvers.
“You all look beautiful,” he said to the graduates. Noting their new status as alumni, Dr. Brown said, “as an alumnus, let me now welcome you to your forever home.”
Dr. Brown put into clear terms the rarity of their accomplishment noting that only about 2% of U.S. adults hold a doctoral degree and that 11-14% hold a master’s degree. “What you have accomplished is not typical.”
He went on to name just a few of the ways these graduates will move from this “academic summit” to change the world after earning degrees in more than a dozen disciplines including Agricultural and Resource Economics, Animal and Poultry Science, Integrative Biosciences, Integrative Public Policy and Development, and Material Science and Engineering.
“Your work will solve the nation’s food security imbalance, provide new paths to sustainable land use, and insist on health equity policy for all of our people – Tuskegee graduates are going to do that,” he said. “Tuskegee University does not produce graduates that blend quietly into the background of history. We produce graduates who confront the world’s most complex problems and we refuse simple answers.”
Dr. Brown encouraged the graduates to see themselves as a continuation of a long line of transformational leaders born from Mother Tuskegee.
“When you call the roll of Tuskegee University, the ancestors still speak if you will listen close enough,” said Dr. Brown. “They whisper, and sometimes they shout
you can and must do more, just as they did. Washington, Carver, Moton, Johnson, Taylor, James – you now are on that roll. The world does not merely welcome you – it needs you.”
In her keynote address, Rear Admiral Hale, a 2003 graduate of the Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine (TUCVM), connected with the uncertainty graduates might be feeling about the expectations now upon them to be leaders, sharing her experience from when she sat in the very same arena a little over two decades ago during her graduation from TUCVM.
Rear Admiral Hale is the Chief Veterinarian Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. In this role, she advises the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services on issues central to the strength of the Veterinary Category and the assignment and deployment of Commissioned Corps veterinary officers. She also provides leadership and career counseling to the approximately 70 nationally dispersed Commissioned Corps veterinarians who are committed to using their highly versatile training in animal health, comparative medicine, and infectious disease to advance the Nation’s public health. She also serves on the Assistant Surgeons General Leadership Council.
Prior to coming to FDA, she worked at the Food Safety and Inspection Service as the Chief Public Health Veterinarian and the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Public Health Science. In previous assignments throughout her 20+ years of Commissioned Corps service, she worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and at the Maryland Department of Health as a CDC Preventive Medicine Fellow.
She earned her bachelor’s in Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, her doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Tuskegee, and a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Minnesota. She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
“When I was in your position, I did not see myself as an aspiring leader,” she said, adding that she was simply looking to find work that was secure, stable, and that wouldn’t require a grueling schedule.
“I wasn’t wildly ambitious. And if you had told me back then that one day I would be a Rear Admiral in charge of major scientific programs or even if you had told me that one day I would be standing in front of you all, I would have looked at you like you were crazy.”
But Rear Admiral Hale reminded the graduates that they can’t know now where life might take them.
“You may think you have a complete handle on all of your strengths and weaknesses, that you know backwards and forward all of your professional goals and interest, and that you are an expert on all of your core values in life,” she said.
“You have only scratched the surface of self-discovery – and that’s a good thing.” Rear Admiral Hale then explained how the life and artistry of her favorite music artist, Prince, helped her make sense of her evolution as a quiet but powerful leader.
“For those who might not see yourself as a leader and yet you may end up becoming one any way just like me,” she told the audience what she learned from Prince.
“What did I learn from Prince?” she began, giving the mostly Gen Z graduates a history lesson on the career trajectory that began when he burst on the music scene in 1979 writing, producing, arranging and playing multiple instruments, creating a new blend of funk, rock, R&B, pop and new wave just as the disco craze was ending. She explained how audiences and industry leaders didn’t know what to make of his unapologetic sexual ambiguity but that his fan base continued to grow exponentially from every corner, a phenomenon that continued until he died in 2016.
“From the time that Prince dropped his first album to his last, he spoke to the underdogs of the world who wanted to move through the world fearlessly, unapologetically and playfully,” she said. “Prince showed them how to do that.”
Of the naysayers that she asserted would surely come, she invited the graduates to use Prince’s example.
“You do not conquer darkness by raging against darkness, by fighting it and trying to change it.
You conquer it by pulling yourself, and others, toward the light,” she said, pointing up into the rafters at a light as applause swelled from the audience.
“In the light, hope, courage and empowerment are in abundance. And these qualities are what bring out the best in people. It allows people to transcend the darkness and ultimately reach their highest potential. This guiding principle is what Prince instilled in me.”
Rear Admiral Hale then recounted Prince’s Super Bowl XLI Halftime show, which took place in the rain and is widely regarded as one of the greatest halftime performances of all time.
Whereas other artist might have succumbed to panic or canceled their performance, Hale noted that Prince famously remained calm – an artistically curious about the theatrical opportunities the rain presented. “Can we make it rain harder,” he asked envisioning the powerful impact performing his classic hit "Purple Rain” would have on his fans.
Hale urged the graduates to think of themselves as the purveyors of their own powerful impact and to understand that great opportunity lies within every obstacle.
“If there is one thing that you take from my speech today – you are all leaders, all of you. You have led yourself to this moment. So many other people will never achieve what you have just achieved.
“Continue to stay focused on opportunity and you will continue to achieve. So, get out there and play in the rain.”
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