As the Class of 2025 stood poised to take the next step in their medical careers, Amy J. Goldberg, MD, FACS, the Marjorie Joy Katz Dean of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, encouraged them to take a moment—and think about how far they’d already come.
“Medicine is often seen as a linear progression: first year, second year, rotations, Match Day, graduation,” she said, addressing the class at its commencement, held May 9 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The ceremony was also livestreamed on the school’s YouTube channel. “But the reality is far more complex. Our journeys do not follow straight lines. They twist, they turn, they stall. They surge forward. They test us. They shape us. And if we embrace them fully, they transform us.”
“The journey is not merely a sequence of milestones; it is a calling,” she added.
Temple physicians have historically arrived at their calling from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and the Class of 2025 is no exception. Its members came from 26 different states, as well as Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, and nearly as many different countries. Some arrived with advanced degrees in a variety of fields, others with a broad range of work experiences, including researchers, social workers, servers, and teachers. The class’s journey through medical school was also uniquely mapped to their dean’s professional path, as she was appointed interim dean ahead of the 2021-2022 academic year, as the Class of 2025 began their first year at Katz. Dr. Goldberg was named permanent dean in September 2022.
“Some of the most profound lessons I have learned did not come from textbooks or journals,” she said. “They came from patients and families, from the humility of the trauma bay, from the courage of my colleagues. And from students, like many of you, who challenge us to see the world differently.”
Dean Goldberg encouraged the Class of 2025 to continue to display the same resilience and reflection that she said defined its identity during its tenure at Katz.
“Medicine will test you,” she said. “There will be moments of exhaustion, moments of doubt. Be bold. Be compassionate. Be present. Because that is the foundation of healing.
“And you are ready,” she continued, “because you are ‘Temple Made.’ Temple has prepared you to lead not just with skill but with both your full heart and soul.”
Mount Sinai CEO and Katz Alumnus Reflects on Hope, Humanity, and Connection
The ceremony’s keynote speaker was Brendan G. Carr, MD ‘01, MA, MS, Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, which includes the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is also the Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair. He remains clinically active in Mount Sinai’s Emergency Department.
In his address, Dr. Carr shared that he grew up in nearby Delaware County, and referenced his Temple medical education at multiple points.
He said he didn’t decide to become a doctor until he was in graduate school studying psychology, working late-night shifts on a mobile crisis intervention team in Baltimore. And while he quickly grew to admire the skill, knowledge, creativity, and flexibility of the dedicated doctors he worked with, Dr. Carr said he also came to realize that being a doctor was nothing like what he imagined it to be.
Those nights, he said, were his first look “behind the curtain.”
“You’ve all seen behind that curtain now,” Dr. Carr said to the Class of 2025. “And you know that, with the exception of… Dr. Goldberg, who in fact knows everything and has it all together, the fancy hats and the regalia, they’re a trick. We’re all figuring it out, the same as you.”
And though healthcare “will break your heart, it will humble you,” he said, “the crazy part is that medicine also builds you up in a way that you can never imagine, and it gives you hope, makes you believe in science and humanity, makes you believe in the power of people… in faith. And for some people, it – for me, especially – reminds me that the most powerful thing is our connection to each other.”
Science and technology, he said, are revolutionizing medicine, and, in the process, changing the ways doctors think. But it’s critical that the graduates’ practices be grounded in humanity, a sentiment Dean Goldberg also expressed in her speech, because, Dr. Carr said, “when you lead with compassion and authenticity, you are not going to believe the way you are repaid for it.”
Echoing Dean Goldberg’s comments about the nonlinear nature of what’s to come, Dr. Carr said, “The trademark resilience, creativity, and grit that is now spliced into your DNA is going to open doors that you don’t know exist yet. .
“We’re trusting our future to you,” he continued. “You’re the people who are going to solve the challenges that we face right now.”
Recognizing Faculty who Shaped the Journey
As is tradition, the graduating MD class dedicated its yearbook, The Skull, to “an individual who has been especially significant in their education and in their lives.” There were two dedicatees this year: Abiona Berkeley, MD, JD, Senior Associate Dean, Health Equity, and James Anasti, MD ‘82, Director of Clinical Curriculum and Research at the St. Luke’s Regional Campus.
Dr. Anasti was unable to attend the ceremony, but Dr. Berkeley shared that the Class of 2025 “schooled us and filled us with pride in their ability to defy our acquiescence.” She continued: “The absence of these graduating visionaries will not be mourned in our halls because we know that they leave us, and the community we serve, to stand up for, and in some instances against, an entire world.”
She encouraged them to be “as unapologetic and fearless with the future, as you have been here at Temple,” adding, “We are immensely proud of you and the impact you have made on the entirety of the Katz community. You have dared to see the vast disparities and injustices which remain invisible to many.”
Reflections from a new Class of Temple Made Physicians
Taj Singh, MS Ed, MD, Class President of the St. Luke’s Regional Campus, attempted to quantify the blur that was medical school for him and many of his classmates. He determined that they’d participated in 1,225 hours of lectures and somewhere between 2,200 to 2,400 hours of clinical training over the last four years.
But he’s most proud of the community outreach that he and his classmates at the St. Luke’s and Main campuses carried out together.
“We’ve inspired younger classes to give back to those who need it most and within our own community,” Dr. Singh said.
Nicki Karimi-Mostowfi, MD, Class President of the Main Campus, marveled at how she and her classmates matured, pushing through new and persistent insecurities at each phase.
“As we move on to the next stage, remember that what feels uncertain today will one day become certain,” she said. “And I challenge you all to embrace the unknown. Remember the skills you have learned here at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, and lean on your friends and family. You've already proven again and again that you can face any challenge and come out stronger.”
Eventually, the words of encouragement ended and the attention turned to the conferring of degrees and then the presentation of academic hoods. As the graduates were announced, one by one, they stepped onstage to bursts of applause from different parts of the concert hall.
Jonathan Toib, MD, who said he’d spent much of the ceremony to that point sifting through the memories that had accumulated over the last four years, was greeted onstage by his parents, whose support through medical school, Dr. Toib says, was essential to his success.
Dana Toib, MD, a pediatric rheumatologist at St. Luke’s, and Amir Toib, MD, MSc, a former pediatric cardiologist at St. Luke’s, were given the opportunity to hood their son, elevating an already indelible occasion to an “especially meaningful” one, Dr. Jonathan Toib said, “and a moment that I will aways cherish.”
The daunting prospects of embarking on rigorous residencies and attempting to heal a divided country could wait. For this Friday morning and the celebratory weekend that would follow, the Class of 2025 was inspired to embrace being doctors – and the winding paths that were forged to get here.