Student Speaker: Mia Kouveliotes

Mia Kouveliotes has found that her time at WashU has been shaped by both academic exploration and a strong sense of community. 

“I knew I was looking for a very strong academic environment, but also a very collaborative community,” she said. “And with that, I found WashU.”

Kouveliotes, a senior majoring in anthropology on the Global Health and Environment track and minoring in public health and society, also found a place where she could bridge her academic interests with her creative and professional goals.

“I’ve always sought to strike a balance between creativity and the sciences,” she said. “WashU really served a great purpose to have a strong research infrastructure while also having that liberal arts energy at the college.”

One of her favorite WashU memories came from the performing arts community on campus. “I loved directing a musical out on the Brookings Quad with All Student Theatre,” she said. “I directed ‘Next to Normal,’ which is about mental health, and that’s very much oriented with what I want to be going into as a career.”  The experience allowed her to merge her interests in storytelling, creativity, and mental health into one project.

Among her accomplishments, Kouveliotes points to her involvement in shaping a new academic initiative. “I’m most proud of being involved with the new Program in Public Health & Society,” she said. “I really enjoyed getting the chance to cultivate it and create the experience that I wish I had going into WashU.”

When she speaks to the audience, Kouveliotes wants to encourage reflection and optimism about what comes next. “I hope the audience is inspired to honor their narrative and be proud of what they’ve accomplished so far, but also be very excited for the next chapter of their story,” she said.

Looking back, she emphasized the importance of presence. “If I were to give any advice to my younger self, I would say savor every moment and stay in the present,” she said. “Four years fly by in an instant, and you don’t want to sacrifice any moments of joy that you can.”

After graduation, Kouveliotes will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she will pursue a master’s in public health, concentrating in health policy. She hopes to work on mental health crisis infrastructure and mental health law and policy.  

“WashU helped prepare me for this career, largely because of the Program in Public Health & Society, conducting research at the School of Public Health, as well as being able to create my own public health curriculum through the Department of Anthropology,” she said.

Alumni Speaker: Rochelle Walensky 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, AB ’91, MD, MPH, parlayed her WashU education into a career that placed her at the forefront of the fight against infectious diseases. As director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped lead the nation through a time of unprecedented uncertainty and danger. 

Walensky graduated with dual degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from WashU in 1991. She participated in the University Scholars Program in Medicine (USPM), a previous/former curriculum designed to fast-track students into medical school. “Even in high school, I knew I wanted to be a physician,” she said. 

She went on to earn an MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Early in her career, she worked at an inner-city health department in Baltimore in 1995, the year effective treatments for HIV first became available. 

From 2017 to 2020, Walensky served as chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she continued to research vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities.

Treating patients at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis left her well-prepared to face the COVID-19 pandemic. As before, she had to navigate a landscape of fear and misinformation to protect the public from a deadly virus. “I worked hard to make choices that I thought were right for public health,” she said. 

Walensky received an Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2024 and an honorary doctor of science degree from the university in 2025. She credits her WashU education — where debates about Descartes could follow classes on thermodynamics — with equipping her to tackle enormous challenges. 

“WashU was foundational and transformational for me,” she said. “It allowed me the opportunity to think big.” 

Meet the 2026 graduate ceremony speakers and student marshals.