On Sunday, May 17, 2026, California Health Sciences University (CHSU) held its Class of 2026 Commencement and Hooding Ceremony for its medical school and master’s program at the Save Mart Center in Fresno.
CHSU marked another historic milestone with 171 graduates this year, which is the largest cohort for both its medical school and master’s program to date.
The medical school graduates were draped with an academic hood to represent their initiation into the field of medicine. Dr. Flo Dunn, Founding President, conferred the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree upon the graduates, thirteen of which graduated with honors. Cortland Jell, DO, is the Class Valedictorian and Zian Shabbir, DO, is the Class Salutatorian.
“I’m so proud to see our third cohort of 131 medical students graduate to become osteopathic physicians and serve as compassionate, knowledgeable and skilled clinicians. With over 300 medical school graduates to date, we are advancing our mission to improve access to healthcare by educating and training physicians to serve the Central Valley and beyond.” stated John Graneto, DO, Dean of the CHSU-COM.
In March, CHSU announced a 100% residency match rate for the Class of 2026 graduates, marking the third consecutive cohort earning this achievement. With 29% of the 2026 residency matches occurring in the Central Valley, 70% in California, and 65% in Primary Care specialties, this cohort of graduates will continue to help advance the university mission when they officially become first year resident physicians this summer.
• CHSU achieved 100% match rate for class of 2026
• 65% of residencies are in Primary Care
• 29% of residencies are in the Central Valley
• 70% of residencies are in California
• 131 medical student graduates
The 40 graduates earning a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences (MSBS) degree were also draped with an academic hood at the ceremony. Eleven of the graduates are planning to attend the CHSU medical school starting this fall. Many others are attending other medical schools, dental schools, podiatric medical school or planning to attend CHSU medical school in the future.
“I’m excited to see so many of our graduates who completed our one-year master’s degree program be accepted to our CHSU medical school and other health professional schools. This program was designed to help students improve their GPA and MCAT scores to become more competitive applicants. Our MSBS program is quickly becoming one of our top feeder programs at the CHSU medical school,” stated Dr. Flo Dunn, Founding President at California Health Sciences University (CHSU).
The commencement speaker for the 2026 graduates was Karen J. Nichols, DO, MA, MACOI, MACP, FAMWA, CS-F, Chair Emeritus, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Nichols spoke to this generation of osteopathic physicians and emphasized there are three things they need to remember while taking care of patients, good communication, always do your best, and be sincere to gain the trust of patients.