Congratulations to the more than 270 Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON)students – 72 from the ABSN program, 141 from the MSN  and Certificate program, 59 from the DNP program and one from the PhD program – who will participate in graduation exercises on Sunday, May 15, at 4 p.m. Click here to watch live.

The graduation exercises will be at Duke University Chapel located at 401 Chapel Drive in Durham. A reception will take place at the School of Nursing. The ceremony will be live streamed and recorded.

Marion E. Broome, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and Ruby Wilson Professor of Nursing for DUSON, and vice chancellor for Nursing Affairs for Duke University and associate vice president for Academic Affairs for Nursing for Duke University Health System, will serve as mistress of ceremony. 

School of Nursing alumna Courtney Ellis Caiola, PhD, RN, MPH, will be the speaker for the graduation ceremony. Caiola earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), a Master of Public Health degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, a Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a doctorate in nursing from Duke University School of Nursing in 2015. She has been a registered nurse for more than 19 years and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the UNC-CH School of Nursing, where her focus is on the social and economic determinants of health for women at risk for or living with chronic illnesses. In August of 2016, Caiola will become an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Nursing.

The student marshals for the ceremony are Stephen Scott as Flag Bearer, Michael Lister for the ABSN program, Natalie Krohl for the MSN program and Mario Desmedt for the DNP program.

Academic regalia are required for Duke Commencement and the School of Nursing Hooding and Recognition Ceremony. The School will have two professional photographers on hand to capture all photos. Ordering instructions will be sent after the ceremony.

To the students participating in this year’s graduation exercises, remember these words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

Congratulations on all of your hard work and for choosing to make the world of nursing a place of excellence.