(Remarks as prepared)
Thank you, Provost McGreevy, distinguished faculty, and the many family and friends of our graduates.
Congratulations to the Graduate Class of 2026!
It is an honor and a privilege to be here, among all of you, at your iconic commencement celebration, at Notre Dame, home of the Fighting Irish!
This is very special to me as my grandparents all came to the U.S. from Ireland as courageous young adults — full of adventure, optimism and ambition to build a new future for themselves and their families. I even have the steamer trunk of my grandmother, Mary Ann Dowling, emblazoned with her wonderful initials M.A.D.
They certainly embodied the spirit of the Fighting Irish, and this spirit is embedded within me!
I know my grandparents, together with my parents, would be so very proud to see me here today with you!
I also know your families are so proud of each of you and are here to share this moment with you.
You have also arrived here at Notre Dame with your own background and history — one that has propelled you to expand your knowledge as you prepare for a rapidly changing future.
In particular, graduate school fosters appreciation not just of your field but so much more about the world and different perspectives. You have learned with students from around the country and the world — a rather marvelous manifestation of an American university. You now share a common bond with one another and a set of values — to bring your talents and your humanity to benefit society.
This enriches you in ways that you will appreciate even more later.
We are in a moment of profound change — we see tremendous advances in AI that hold promise to advance so many disciplines and areas of knowledge while also raising new concerns; we are observing rapid advancements in biology and medicine with the great promise of improving health and curing disease; yet we are also confronted with our past and our ongoing impact on climate and sustainability — we have a shared responsibility on all of these fronts to shape a future that is positive for all of humanity and our planet.
These are great challenges and also great opportunities for leadership and progress that uplifts all. I say it is a profound moment because the pace of these changes and the scope of their impact are remarkable, occurring not over a generation but within a span of years.
It can feel overwhelming — how can an ordinary person — or even a talented Notre Dame graduate — make their mark and have an impact?
You are a generation of achievers and planners — you are ready for this moment, but you will need to set aside any sense of a well-worn path to “success”. Even in the face of urgency, you need to be thoughtful, you need guiding principles, and you must embrace change, recognize opportunity, and do so with integrity.
Sharing my own mostly unplanned journey cannot adequately advise or prepare you for the next years and decades, but I hope it can provide a sense of how to navigate the twists and turns ahead and inspire optimism for your future.
Let me highlight some key moments and decisions that shaped my career and life — upon reflection, these were guided by my own unconscious internal compass.
I have no doubt you will develop, and indeed are already developing one of your own.
When I look back on my own rather “ordinary” upbringing, I can see the points that led me on such an extraordinary academic journey.
In high school, I loved mathematics and physics — so I was advised to study engineering in college even though I had no idea what engineering was (apparently, physics was too impractical a choice!). As a freshman at Virginia Tech, I was advised — literally — to pursue industrial engineering “since I was a girl.” I wasn’t seeing the physics in these courses — it wasn’t a fit for me — but I was taking a required course in mechanics (that I loved) and learned from my instructor that I could and actually should major in this field. That support from one faculty member set a course for my life — it also showed me the impact that one person can have on your trajectory and that has stuck with me over my career.
Another early change that proved consequential for my life: after graduating with my B.S., I started a great job in the aerospace industry (I even met my husband there) but less than one year in, I realized that I wanted to be more on the cutting edge intellectually, more research focused. I then left the job to go to graduate school at MIT. This was another lesson: follow your instincts, take time to find your fit and pursue what you enjoy
At MIT, I found my fit and ended up staying on for my Ph.D. — working in the area of molecular structure and nonlinear mechanics of polymers. I enjoyed the research, and I had great and supportive mentors. During my last semester, my first son was born and so began the balance of my wonderful, amazing family and my fantastic research. That balance is difficult but so rewarding. I will never forget the day when I was near completing my thesis, and heading to a meeting with my advisors. I carefully loaded my infant son in the car to head to the meeting and left my hardcopy draft of my thesis on the roof of the car. Needless to say, it ended up all over the road, but my son was safe and secure (I knew my priorities)!
After graduate school, I joined the MIT faculty. I loved the independence of charting my own research program. It was challenging and there were difficult moments. One in particular was having a key paper that I considered a major breakthrough rejected as I was approaching tenure (and the only woman faculty member at that time). I stood my ground and persisted —for myself and my talented PhD student — confident that I was doing great research. The paper did eventually get accepted and today it is my most cited paper. I did get tenure and that Ph.D. student of mine — she is the head of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. You will experience rejection — indeed, papers that I have had first rejected have turned out to be some of my most cited and most consequential works, and my Ph.D. students and postdocs occupy faculty positions at top universities around the world. This is another important aspect of your work — your impact on propelling other people forward can be incredible.
Leading major interdisciplinary research programs as a faculty member and then as department head at MIT made me more aware of the impact that I could have in such a role —- impact on people, programs, broader research directions, and decision making. Doing so with ethics, integrity and emotional intelligence, I realized how important the visibility of women in engineering was to attracting and supporting women in engineering — if women are 50% of the population, why are we not 50% in engineering? Why are we missing out on that talent? Talent that could lead to great advancements for society. As department head, undergraduate women's enrollment in mechanical engineering reached nearly 50%.
Your own values, your questions, and curiosity can lead you to a bigger playing field — maybe one with the national visibility of the one you are sitting on now! In 2013, I joined Columbia University as dean of the 91Ƶ of Engineering and Applied Science. It was — and still is — a time of expansion for engineering, a “renaissance” moment for engineering to impact so many fields. Our school vision, Engineering for Humanity, recognizes the impact of engineering on society, the need to attract a wider range of talent to engineering and engage with more fields — including the ones that you are each now expert in - shaping engineering in a larger context. This greater appreciation and knowledge of other fields led to my appointment as provost of Columbia University.
Taking on these opportunities for leadership, while sometimes challenging, can lead you to incredible places as new opportunities for societal impact present themselves. Let me add one final vignette. In New York City, we have one of the largest subway systems in the world — by station count, it is the largest. The subway tunnel connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan was scheduled to be shut down for 12 to 18 months for a full renovation due to heavy damage from the 2012 Superstorm Sandy — impacting hundreds of thousands of daily commuters and surrounding businesses. And because it was the L train, New York media had dubbed it the L-Pocalypse. The governor of New York asked me to assemble a team to find another way to repair that tunnel. I found myself, together with my fellow dean at Cornell, convening an interdisciplinary team of faculty experts across mechanical, electrical and civil engineering. We toured subway tunnels at midnight to understand their structure and alternate possibilities. It was intense and amazing, and I’m happy to say we found another way and the subway did not have to shut down, impacting so many lives and businesses. Not so bad for this ordinary girl from New Jersey who didn’t know what engineering was.
In closing, as you embark on your future, I encourage you to be true to yourself and your ambitions; to become leaders not just of your field and not just for yourself but for others, and to make a larger impact for the sake of humanity.
Embrace and develop all of your talents and skills — they all come into play in many ways and at different times.
Draw on your guiding principles. You have been educated by a wonderful, mission-minded University, a university dedicated to community, service, and being a force for good in the world.
Stay true to these principles and to your own past, family, and history. This will inform you in ways you will appreciate with time.
To the Notre Dame graduates of 2026, never lose your curiosity and sense of wonder and discovery! Know that extraordinary things can come from ordinary beginnings.
In the face of challenges, be thoughtful, be open-minded and open-hearted, strive for excellence. Be persistent, be ethical, and be optimistic.
We believe in you and look forward to all that you will do going forward!
Congratulations!