Honoring Doctoral Degree Recipients

The Office of Graduate Studies welcomes doctoral degree recipients from the current Academic Year, senior leadership, deans, faculty and professional staff advisors, and guests to attend the annual Doctoral Student Celebration, a reception honoring the graduating class. The event features brief remarks from senior leadership and distinguished student and alumni speakers. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments are served.

Please review the Graduation Requirements page and review important graduation dates and deadlines.

Please note that doctoral candidates are hooded as part of the individual college and school ceremonies. For more information about Commencement, including how to RSVP for ceremonies, dates, times, locations, parking, tickets, regalia, where to report, etc. please visit the Commencement website or email commencement@drexel.edu.

2025 Doctoral Student Celebration

Tuesday, June 10
5 to 7 p.m. EDT

Remarks
5 to 5:30 p.m. EDT
Main Auditorium

Reception
5:30 to 7 p.m. EDT
Great Court, First Floor

Main Building
3141 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Building 1 on the University City Campus map

The formal remarks will begin in the Main Auditorium promptly at 5 p.m. EDT and will be live streamed and recorded for later viewing. Link TBA.

The reception will immediately follow remarks in the Great Court. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP using the link below by Monday, June 2.

RSVP

Watch the 2024 Remarks [YouTube]

2025 Distinguished Graduating Student Speaker

Edwin McCulley, PhD(c), MS

PhD Candidate in Epidemiology
Doctoral Research Fellow
Urban Health Collaborative
Dornsife School of Public Health

Edwin McCulley is graduating with a PhD in Epidemiology from the Dornsife School of Public Health. His doctoral research focuses on the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Edwin is a proud US Navy veteran and holds a bachelor's degree in health sciences and a master of science in epidemiology from Drexel University. During his time at Drexel, Edwin served as a doctoral research fellow designing and executing observational studies to generate real-world evidence on population health outcomes and health disparities. As a research coordinator, he collaborated with health departments from 30 major US cities to harmonize the collection and analysis of COVID-19 data. In addition to his research, Edwin was actively involved in student leadership, serving as president of the Delta Omega National Honorary Society in Public Health for the Beta Omega Chapter, and treasurer of the Public Health Doctoral Student Advisory Group. Edwin's dedication to research, mentorship, and public health leadership has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Drexel Common Good Award, the Teaching Assistant Excellence Award, and the Mentor Recognition Award. As the 2025 Distinguished Graduating Student Speaker, he is honored to represent his graduating class and inspire future public health leaders.

2025 Distinguished Alumni Speaker

Katie Van Aken, PhD '17

Entrepreneur

After graduating from Haverford College with an undergraduate degree in Physics, Dr. Van Aken joined the Materials Science and Engineering department as a PhD student in Dr. Yury Gogotsi's lab at Drexel University. She researched electrolytes and carbon materials for energy storage and graduated in 2017. After graduation, Dr. Van Aken secured a postdoctoral fellowship in the Electrical Engineering department at Drexel and went on to pursue a career in industry. She took a project manager role at Syncro Medical working on software development projects for medical device companies. Since 2017, Dr. Van Aken has also been coaching soccer, both for Drexel's club team and Haverford's varsity team. In 2021, Dr. Van Aken launched Impact Factor, a podcast discussing issues relevant to students who are at different stages of pursuing their PhD. She put the podcast on hold in 2024 when she was accepted into a master's program at The Football Business Academy. The program led to an internship in the United Kingdom with Worcester City Women's Football Club, which she recently completed.

As a doctoral student at Drexel, Dr. Van Aken served in many leadership roles, including as an executive board member of the Graduate Student Association in which she co-founded the Drexel Emerging Graduate Scholars (DEGS) Conference, now in its ninth year. Dr. Van Aken has returned to support the DEGS Conference for many years and also facilitates the annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition prep workshop. Her continued leadership and service to Drexel has left a lasting legacy and we are thrilled to welcome her back to campus to address the graduating Class of 2025!

Accommodation Requests

Disability Resources provides equal opportunity and equal access to programs and activities for all individuals at Drexel University and empowers individuals who have documented disabilities by working together proactively to provide reasonable accommodations. To request accommodations for this event, please contact the Disability Resources at disability@drexel.edu. We appreciate requests at least 72 hours in advance. Thank you!