Office of the President

Dear MCPHS Community,

In spite of the extraordinary challenges that we all face these days, we are entering 2026 with unprecedented opportunities that continue to advance our mission and inspire our Community. The foundation that we have built–centered around our core values of support, inclusion, compassion, respect, and kindness–gives us the confidence to achieve our aspirational goals and reach our potential.

We are proud to be a leader in health and life sciences education with a passionate commitment to preparing our graduates for lifelong, rewarding, and impactful careers. Through classroom training and experiential learning, there are more opportunities than ever for students to practice their skills and apply their knowledge.

At the core of our ability to “achieve our best” is the continuous effort to expand and strengthen our opportunities to engage with each other. Our University has been around for over 200 years and has grown to support over 100 academic programs with students and faculty from close to 90 countries. Staying connected is critical to enhancing the ecosystem that we fervently nurture–an environment that supports the skills, experience, creativity, and enthusiasm that our Community seeks and rightfully deserves.

In addition to our 100 student clubs and organizations, our Centers for Excellence bring our students, faculty, staff, and alumni together, creating rich surroundings filled with passion and innovation. These Centers underscore the critical importance of collaboration and provide opportunities around Research & Discovery, Health & Wellbeing, Life Sciences, Health Humanities, International Studies, Teaching & Learning, and Interprofessional Practice & Education. I sincerely hope that you take advantage of these wonderful and rewarding experiences.

This year brings additional excitement around a number of new initiatives, as well as others that have been launched in prior years that are gaining tremendous momentum. We are establishing our footprint in the burgeoning field of Biomedical Engineering with our partnership with WPI. We have launched numerous programs, seminars, speaker series, and hackathons around AI, data science, and analytics.

Our integrative health initiative is moving aggressively forward with the opening of our Boston campus’ Acupuncture Treatment Center, and our newly renovated and expanded Career Center has become a “go-to” stop for our students. We continue to build new labs, classrooms, and socialization spaces, and our Hybrid Online Pharmacy program is also looking to enroll its first class. You will hear much more from these and many other initiatives during the year as we continue to advance and celebrate the mission of our proud University.

I wish you health and happiness in 2026 and look forward to seeing you around campus.

Sincerely,
Richard J. Lessard, President