If you asked me to sum up the first half of 2026 in a single word, I’d struggle. “Busy” doesn’t capture it. “Historic” feels closer, but not quite there. Maybe the truest word is the one that’s guided us throughout the years: resilience. Higher education is navigating real challenges right now, and yet, this has been one of the most accomplished times in The Chicago School’s history.
As we move through summer and get ready to start the new academic year, I find myself reflecting on everything our community has built together and everything that remains ahead.
Here’s some of what we’ve been celebrating.
A New Campus in Chicago
The Chicago School has officially moved into its new Chicago Campus located in the city’s West Loop neighborhood, and it’s unlike anything we’ve had before. Designed from the ground up for collaboration, the building brings all of our Chicago-based programs under one roof, including our newest addition: the Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine.
We share the new campus space with The Community Solution Education System, of which we are a founding member. This opens the door to even more cross-institutional collaboration and shared advancement.
It’s more than a new address. It’s a statement about how we want to teach, research, and grow.
IllinoisCOM Is off and Running
Few moments capture the spirit of this institution like watching IllinoisCOM come to life. The college has now formally enrolled its inaugural cohort and celebrated its first Student Orientation and White Coat Ceremony, and applications are already pouring in for the second cohort, set to begin in July 2027.
The momentum hasn’t gone unnoticed. Out of 38 applicants from 19 states, IllinoisCOM was named one of just four recipients of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine’s Innovations in GME Development Grant. The funding will help build new Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residency programs in an underserved Chicago community, expanding training capacity through a combined osteopathic and allopathic model. It’s exactly the kind of work our medical school was built to do.
Commencement, Twice Over
This spring and early summer, we celebrated students at four commencement ceremonies across our Chicago and Southern California campuses. They mark us sending more than 750 new professionals from over 25 programs into the workforce, 163 of them graduating with academic honors.
There’s one statistic that stands out to me every year, and this year was no exception: 57% of our Chicago graduates and 63% of our California graduates identify as first-generation college students, compared to a national average of roughly 38%. That’s a clear representation of our mission coming to life and worth celebrating.
Showing Up, Everywhere
Beyond the ceremonies, it’s been a year of presence in our communities, in our profession, and in the conversations shaping the future of higher education. A few highlights:
- Leadership America, hosted right here at our new campus
- Illinois Latino Unity Day and the NALEO conference, where we deepened our commitment to equitable access in healthcare and education
- The America’s Urban Campus mayoral roundtable, where our leadership sat down with the mayor of Chicago to talk about what’s next for higher education in this city
Every one of these moments is a chance to build partnerships, sharpen our message, and remind people why integrated health matters.
Mental Health, Mentioned Out Loud
Our Mental Health Awareness Month campaign, a series of videos and articles aimed squarely at the stigma still surrounding mental health, especially at work, found real traction with our community this year.
That momentum carried into the 24th Annual Community Mental Health Conference, hosted by the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute for Mental Health Education at The Chicago School (NRCI). This year’s theme, loneliness, brought together practitioners, educators, researchers, students, and community members for a candid look at how isolation shows up across the lifespan and how connection can be built back in, on purpose.
And on a personal note: I was deeply honored to be named one of Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Leaders in Health Care this year. I want to be clear that recognition isn’t just mine. It belongs to everyone here who shows up every day for our mission of expanding integrated health education and mental health access across this country.
Onward
No worthwhile path is free of obstacles. What defines us isn’t the absence of challenges; it’s how we meet them. And right now, The Chicago School is meeting this moment with the same focus that has always made us who we are: our mission, our students, the professions we represent, and the communities we exist to serve.
This year marks my 16th year as president of this university. Leading the school that shaped me, that took a chance on a student from Ireland who arrived not quite knowing where her path would lead, is still, after all this time, the privilege of my life. I’ve watched this university weather uncertainty, reinvent itself, and grow more ambitious with every challenge it’s faced, and I’m more energized today than I was on day one. The work is far from finished. If anything, with a new campus, a new medical school, and a strategic vision that stretches until the end of the decade, we’re just getting started.
Over 30 years ago, I came to the United States with no idea this school would become my career’s work. I earned my degree here, taught here, led a campus here, and now have the honor of leading us there, alongside remarkable colleagues. If that journey says anything, it’s this: There is no limit to what’s possible at The Chicago School for our students today, just as there wasn’t for me all those years ago.
Here’s to everything still ahead.