Graduation is your last step before exploring the next step in your professional health career.

SHRS Spring Graduation Ceremonies

The SHRS 2025 Spring Graduation Ceremonies will be held on Saturday, May 3, 2025, at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall.

Ceremony Information

If you are no longer going to attend the SHRS ceremony on May 3, please email the Director of Student Services and Registrar Kellie Beach as soon as possible so that seating can be adjusted.

Morning Ceremony | 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.

  • This ceremony will be livestreamed. Click here to access the livestream.
  • Doors open at: 8:30 a.m.
  • This ceremony will include students from these programs:
    • Undergraduate programs
      • Emergency Medicine
      • Rehabilitation Science
    • Graduate programs
      • Counseling
      • Occupational Therapy
      • PA Studies
      • Physical Therapy
      • Prosthetics and Orthotics,
      • Rehabilitation Science PhDs
      • Rehabilitation Technology
  • Click here to record your name in NameCoach for the name announcer. The deadline is April 19.
  • Click here to view additional information about the morning ceremony (PDF).

Afternoon Ceremony | 2 – 4 p.m.

  • This ceremony will be livestreamed. Click here to access the livestream.
  • Doors open at: 1:00 p.m.
  • This ceremony will include undergraduate, graduate and PhD students from these departments:
    • Communication Science and Disorders
    • Health Informatics
    • Sports Medicine and Nutrition
  • Click here to record your name in NameCoach for the name announcer. The deadline is April 19.
  • Click here to view additional information about the afternoon ceremony (PDF).

GradImages - Ceremony Photography

During each SHRS ceremony, GradImages will be taking photos of you as you walk across the stage to receive your diploma. After each ceremony, we will provide GradImages with your Pitt Email, so that they can send you photo proofs to view and purchase.

You can preregister now until the day of the ceremony to receive a coupon code for 20% off an order of $50 or more.

Please direct any questions to their Customer Service Department at (800) 261-2576, online at www.gradimages.com, or email ecc.giservice@gradimages.net. They have a large team of customer care representatives ready to help graduates and family members with anything they may need.

Keynote Speakers

Morning Ceremony | Keynote Speaker

Man with short dark hair wearing a dark blue suit and light blue shirt.

Joseph M. David, DPT, MS, PT, OCS, CSCS (BS ’86, MS ’88)

  • Owner, David Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Centers
  • Head Basketball Coach, Mt. Lebanon High School
  • Owner, President of Pistoia Basketball Professional Team, Pistoia Italy
  • Author, “The BORA Defensive System” (basketball book)

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Joseph David, DPT, MS, PT, OCS, CSCS (BS ‘86, MS ‘88) is a lot of things to a lot of people. As a collegiate athlete, he played basketball at the University of Pittsburgh from 1982 to 1986 and captained the Big East team during his senior year and was named Academic All-American in 1985-1986. David was Pitt’s first Big East Rookie of the Week and was the first Big East Male Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1984-1985.

For the past 25 years, David has been the head coach of the Mt. Lebanon High School boys basketball team in Pittsburgh, and has been awarded Coach of the Year numerous times in addition to his teams winning multiple section and district championships. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Basketball Hall of Fame and is an Awardee of Distinction at the University of Pittsburgh.

As a medical practitioner, David has been the owner of David Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Center in Pittsburgh for the past 31 years. Along with his doctorate in physical therapy from Temple University, at Pitt he earned a master’s degree in orthopedic physical therapy, and bachelor’s degrees in both physical therapy and behavioral neuroscience. He is also a board certified specialist in orthopedic physical therapy and a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

David is also the owner and president of Pistoia Basketball Professional Team in Pistoia, Italy, and the author of the popular basketball book, “The BORA Defensive System.” He and his wife, Sandi, have three sons and one daughter all of whom have their doctorate degrees in physical therapy from the University of Pittsburgh and work in the family business. The Davids reside in Mt. Lebanon.

Afternoon Ceremony | Keynote Speaker

Meagan Sampogna Williams, PhD, MBA, RHIA (BS ’00)

  • SHRS Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient
  • SHRS Board of Visitors Member
  • Pitt Alumni Association (PAA) Board Member, Awards Committee Chair
  • Chief Operating Officer, The US Oncology Network

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Meagan Sampogna Williams, PhD, MBA, RHIA (BS ‘00) has spent her entire 25-year health care career focused on patient care in every role she has held. From designing and implementing specialty pharmacy systems to fulfill chronic disease prescriptions for clients such as Walgreens, Aetna and Highmark, to working directly with the Food and Drug Administration on behalf of 80+ pharmaceutical manufacturers to navigate drug approvals and development of risk management programs for novel therapies, to operating hundreds of specialty and infusion pharmacies, infusion treatment centers and oncology practices across the nation, she is motivated to connect people, processes and technology to supporting patients with significant health care needs.

She currently serves as the chief operating officer for the U.S. Oncology Network, a business unit of McKesson (a Fortune 9 company) where she is dedicated to bringing innovation to local oncology care in 31 states with over 2,700 providers for over 1.4 million cancer patients annually. Williams has also held executive leadership positions as president and chief operating officer for BioMatrix Specialty Pharmacy and Paragon Healthcare, a CarelonRx Company supporting specialty infusion pharmacy, home infusion clinical care and infusion practice operations on a national scale.

These roles and work opportunities would not have been possible without her SHRS education where she got her first taste of health care operations in student positions held in medical transcription at UPMC and in the pediatric tumor registry at Children’s Hospital. While SHRS project and capstone work can take significant time and effort for students, it paid off for Williams as the required Health Information Management senior capstone project led to her first job in health care technology upon graduation at Creehan & Company, now a part of Inovalon.

In addition to her bachelor of science in health information management, she also earned her MBA from Robert Morris University and holds a PhD in health services and leadership from Walden University.

Williams gives her time extensively to the University of Pittsburgh as an Executive Committee, Awards Committee Chair, and board member of the Pitt Alumni Association, a Board of Visitors member for SHRS, an advisory board member for the Masters of Science Health Informatics program, a Chancellor Circle Member, a Panther Club Member, a Pitt men’s basketball season ticket holder, and a founding sponsor of the Meagan Sampogna Williams Student Resource Fund in SHRS.

Williams also holds a board seat with Life Teen International and has a heart for serving the next generation of leaders in various ways. She resides with her loving husband and two springer spaniel pups in sunny Scottsdale, AZ, where she enjoys her garden, golfing when time allows and serving as a youth and music minister weekly in her church. While she has been west for over 15 years, her vanity Arizona license plate that reads “PITTGAL” is a constant reminder of her roots where she really hails from!

University Commencement

For Undergraduates Only

In May, we will be graduating the largest class in Pitt history!

Spring Commencement will be held at PPG Paints Arena on May 4, 2025. The ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m.

Celebration Graphics

Celebrate the University of Pittsburgh graduates with signs for your yard and windows, designs for the tops of cookies, cakes and cupcakes, social media assets, selfie signs, regional campus signage, pennants, stickers and Zoom/Teams digital backgrounds. Congratulations, Pitt grads!

International Students and Families

The Office of International Services (OIS) offers a Fact Sheet about inviting friends and relatives to the U.S.

If you have any additional questions, please contact OIS:   

Office of International Services 
Email: OIS@pitt.edu
Phone: +1-412-624-7120

Friends and Family Attending an SHRS Ceremony

Pre-order gifts for your SHRS graduates!

All online orders will be available for pickup on-site the day of graduation. To retrieve your order, please stop by our booth located conveniently at the entrance to graduation before the ceremony begins.

Please take a look at the selection of gifts through the link below!