Columbia University’s School of General Studies (GS) is proud to announce that Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH, distinguished epidemiologist, researcher, and dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, will deliver the keynote address at the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program Class Day ceremony on Friday, May 15. Rem Myers ’26PBPM, a former Fulbright Scholar, educator, and theater professional, will be the student speaker.
Keynote Speaker | Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH
Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH, is Dean of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Previously, he was Director of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Director of the Division of HIV Prevention at CDC. He spent 10 years in Africa as the Director of CDC-Uganda and Director of CDC-Kenya. He is a retired 2-star Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service. He has focused his career on science-based, pragmatic research and public health programs that decrease incidence, mortality, and health disparities. He completed an internal medicine residency at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital, a preventive medicine residency at CDC and the California Department of Health Services, and an Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship at CDC. He is a graduate of Harvard College, Stanford University School of Medicine, and has an MPH from Emory University.
Rem Myers | Student Speaker
After graduating from Hamilton College in 2011 with a double major in theatre and biochemistry, Rem Myers traveled to Indonesia, where he taught English under a Fulbright grant. Afterwards, he moved to San Francisco, where he taught high school math/science and worked as a professional theatre director. He obtained a master’s degree in theatre education in 2019, and then moved to New York to run the Upper School Theatre Program at the Spence School, where he continued to work while studying at Columbia. In addition to his classes as a Postbac, Rem has volunteered at Memorial Sloan Kettering and CUIMC. Rem spends his free time with his family: his wife, Preetha, their daughter, Amrita, and their pets, Aja and Oliver. Rem hopes to teach future physicians while practicing medicine in a specialty that puts him in close contact with his patients.
