School of Medicine celebrates Spring ’26 Commencement

The University of Missouri School of Medicine will celebrate the graduation of 124 medical students in the class of 2026 on Saturday, May 16, inside Jesse Auditorium.

This year’s graduating class included 25 graduates who trained at the school’s Springfield Clinical Campus (SCC) in southwest Missouri. SCC is a public/private partnership with Mizzou and CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield Communities health systems.

Dima Dandachi, MD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the Mizzou School of Medicine was selected by this year’s graduating class to serve as commencement speaker. Dandachi is an infectious diseases physician, educator and public health leader committed to expanding access to care for vulnerable communities. She also serves as medical director of the HIV Treatment and Prevention Program, and medical director of Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services.

After receiving their medical degrees, these physicians will go on to receive additional training in their chosen specialties. Many of the physicians – 42% – will remain in Missouri for their residency training and 21% will complete their residency training at Mizzou. Approximately 44% of this year’s graduating class selected residency programs in primary care fields.

The Class of 2026 also featured 19 graduates from the Mizzou School of Medicine’s Rural Scholars Program. The programs launched in 1995 to address the growing shortage of primary healthcare physicians in rural Missouri.

Graduates of the Mizzou School of Medicine consistently score higher than the national average on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Mizzou medical students are trained, evaluated and expected to be competent in their ability to deliver patient-centered care, including their capability to communicate with the patient, family members and colleagues working as part of an interdisciplinary team.