Class of 2026 has a ‘mandate to advocate’
Commencement Day 2026
More than 400 students across all programs comprise the spring 2026 graduating class.
UIC Nursing 2026 commencement speaker Alison Hernandez urged nursing graduates to add their voices and perspectives to help shape decisions affecting the health care system.
“Your nursing degree is not just a license to care,” she said. “It is a mandate to advocate.”
Hernandez, PhD ’18, RN, FAAN, is senior policy advisor on the American Nurses Association’s Policy and Government Affairs team. This year’s graduating class included more than 400 UIC Nursing students – bachelor’s, master’s, DNP and PhD. Graduates and their families gathered at Credit Union 1 Arena on May 7 for commencement.
In addition to Hernandez, commencement exercises featured greetings from Dean Eileen Collins and welcome messages from University of Illinois Trustee Ramon Cepeda, University of Illinois System Executive Vice President Nicholas P. Jones, and UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda.
Pomp and circumstance
Students and faculty were resplendent in gowns, caps, tassels and hoods, and the pomp and circumstance of commencement was on display during “The Star-Spangled Banner” (sung by graduating BSN student Soleil Reyes), speeches, and the conferral of degrees. But the joy of the occasion was also evident as students cheered exuberantly, snapped selfies with friends and family, and wore mortarboards adorned with personal designs and messages.
Graduating BSN student Adedamola Adeoye delivered the student remarks, and Lori Chapman, an adjunct clinical instructor on the Springfield campus, received the Silver Circle Award for Teaching Excellence, which is selected annually by graduating seniors.
Pei Chen, PhD ’26, received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research; Roshni Lotwala, BSN ’26, received the Cardew-Mullane Award for Clinical Excellence and Leadership, and Thanakrit Jeamjitvibool, PhD ’26, received the Graduating Student Recognition Award.
Juliana Green, DNP ’26, Carla Johns, DNP ’26, and Courtney Jean Davis, DNP ’26 received the Superior Academic Achievement Award in their respective departments: Biobehavioral Nursing Science, Population Health Nursing Science and Human Development Nursing Science.
Keynote address
During her remarks, Hernandez noted that she experienced a career-defining “aha” moment while a PhD student at UIC Nursing. She heard UIC Nursing professor emerita Carol Ferrans, PhD ’85, MS ’82, describe how her research helped shape state legislation on breast cancer screening. Hernandez knew she wanted to link nursing research to the laws and policies that guide practice.
Before her current position, Hernandez worked on Capitol Hill in both chambers of Congress.
“What I saw reinforced something important: nurses’ perspectives are still missing from many of the decisions that shape our health care system,” she said. “So we must ask: Why are the people who understand patients best not shaping the systems that serve them?”
Her “call to action” to graduates was three-fold: “advocate, vote and lead,” she said.
And despite her work on Capitol Hill, Hernandez told graduates that, “advocacy does not start in Congress.”
“It starts with a simple question: Why is it done this way?” she said. “It starts in your workplace, your community, and even in your own home. It starts when you see something that is not working—and you speak up and offer a solution.”