If I had to summarize this past year, I would say this: Amid multiple crises, our people stepped up and sacrificed together to protect the University of Miami and to ensure its continuity. I could not be more proud of the work of our dedicated faculty and staff members who reimagined processes and embraced practices to ensure our success across the institution. And I could not be more grateful to our trustees for their steady stewardship and support.

Success, however, is never final. There is no question that both higher education—including intercollegiate athletics—and health care are changing rapidly. As in other areas, the pandemic and intersecting crises have been accelerators of change.

The exciting aspect about rapid transformation is that it provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a better normal. We owe it to those who have suffered, and to those on whose legacy our success has been built, to learn and apply the many lessons of this watershed time in human history.

Within this report, we highlight what building a better normal looks like here at the University of Miami—a place where we do not flinch in times of hardship. We emerge from this year determined to drive positive change. We are working together to deliver what our students and their families expect and deserve, to create and share actionable knowledge, to care for our patients and our community, and to decisively research solutions to many of the world’s problems. We are ’Canes, and this is what we do.