FARMINGTON — The lilt of bagpipes filled the air at the University of Maine at Farmington Saturday, May 9, as it celebrated the Class of 2026. More than 280 of the 324 graduates, including 252 bachelor’s and 72 master’s graduates, marched in the festive ceremony to the enthusiastic cheers of loving families and friends, dedicated faculty, staff and dignitaries.
“Today’s graduates — bachelor’s and master’s alike — came to UMF to discover and pursue their passion,” Joseph McDonnell, UMF president, said. “They stayed at UMF bonded by friendship, professional mentorship, career growth and a love of place and learning. It is with a great sense of pride and optimism that we send our graduates into the world today where they will teach, explore, lead and shape the future in service to society.”
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, a leader with rural roots and national reach in the world of public health and community well-being, delivered the keynote address to students, their families and honored guests. She also received a UMF honorary degree of doctor of humane Letters.
Mills grew up on the UMF campus. Her grandmother and great-grandmother were both graduates, where they trained as teachers. That deep, multigenerational connection to UMF continues to shape how she thinks about health, leadership and what it takes to build systems that truly reach everyone.
After completing her medical degree at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and a master of public health from Harvard, Mills returned to Farmington to practice pediatrics. To this day, she lives part-time here, grounding the national and statewide work she does across healthcare, public health and community partnerships, serving as the chief health improvement officer of MaineHealth..
Her career has focused on bridging medicine, public health and the social conditions that shape health long before someone walks into a clinic. For 15 years, she served as Maine’s state health officer and director of Maine CDC, leading responses to complex public health challenges — from a nationally acclaimed H1N1 pandemic response and vaccination campaign to prevention efforts that reduced teen smoking rates from roughly 40% to 14%, one of the steepest drops in the country. Her accomplishments in those years demonstrated that meaningful progress happens when healthcare, public health, education and community organizations align around common goals.
At MaineHealth, Northern New England’s largest health system, Mills helped lead the health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including its vaccination campaign across the region. She also led the development of a hub-and-spokes model integrating healthcare delivery with public health and community partners, work documented in the American Journal of Public Health and contributing to a growing national conversation about how health systems can anchor community well-being, particularly in rural settings.
She believes the future of health in America will be shaped not only in major academic centers, but in rural and regional communities willing to innovate, collaborate and lead as we see right here in western Maine.
Graduating senior Adam Tosch gave the undergraduate student Commencement address to the Class of 2026. Tosch started his academic career at UMF in 2007 and recently returned to complete his bachelor’s degree in anthropology through the UMF Degree Completion program.
In between his times at UMF, he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and worked in the industry, however his passion for history, Medieval architecture and fieldwork brought him back to his alma mater to pursue a degree that he could embrace as his life’s work.
“I was ready for a different career perspective and UMF made it possible,” Tosch said. “Changing careers is very stressful, but having UMF professors who always make time for you and support your efforts makes all the difference.”
In his speech to his classmates, he shared the thought that, “Graduation day is not the end of the journey but the beginning of multiple journeys as we branch out onto greater things. Graduation is not the end of our educational experience. It is a starting point.”
Tosch presented an original research project at UMF’s recent all-campus Symposium on the Northern Picts, an indigenous group that existed in Scotland from the period of Roman occupation. He has been accepted in a master’s program at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, to continue his research.
Kristyn Plamondon gave the first-ever graduate student speech at this year’s University of Maine at Farmington Commencement exercises. Plamondon graduated in the UMF counseling psychology with a focus on the creative arts master’s program — one of only three similar programs in the United States. Launched in 2020, the program is designed to provide a solid clinical foundation while also integrating creative and expressive arts into the practice of counseling and psychotherapy.
Plamondon comes from a long line of educators and both her mother and father are graduates of the UMF Class of 1970. She initially graduated from UMF in 2002, majoring in elementary education with a focus on visual and performing arts. After a career as a Maine classroom teacher, she returned to UMF in 2023 inspired by the opportunity to combine her creative side with her desire to make a profound difference to individuals dealing with mental-health challenges.
“I feel so privileged to be the first master’s graduate to speak on this landmark day in all our lives,” Plamondon said. “As graduate students, we all came to UMF with a dream to serve others at important moments in their lives as teachers, specialists, counselors and leaders. We all worked hard and balanced everything else in our lives. We didn’t have to be perfect, just patient and present. And today I can say, the work is meaningful and we are all ready.”
As a classroom teacher, Plamondon saw the need for social and emotional learning. As a graduate student, she was excited about learning to integrate the creative arts into the practice of counseling and psychotherapy to assist with the mental-health challenges in Maine. She is currently interning at Kennebec Behavioral Health and hopes to be a school-based clinician.
The National Anthem was sung by graduating senior Hannah Hall from Waterville, majoring in early childhood education.
Trish Riley, member of the University of Maine System Board of Trustees, delivered greetings to the graduates and their family and friends.
McDonnell and Katherine Yardley, co-provost and dean of the College of Education, Health and Rehabilitation, conferred the degrees.
