WORCESTER, Mass. — UMass Chan Med School hosted former CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and former NASA astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson Friday to highlight the school's mentorship program.

UMass Leadership Institute For Growth Health And Transformation, or LIGHT, started three years ago as a way to pair underrepresented students with faculty mentors.

The program now has more than 200 faculty-student pairs.

"I think when you have Dr. Walensky and Hoot Gibson here, they were people that had faced high adversity or high-risk situations,” said Melanie Barbini, a MD, PhD student at UMass Chan. “It's really important to learn how they're able to harness their skills and the skills of the people around them to make effective teams and effective leaders and communicators when we have really important events that we need to work together towards."

Walensky and Gibson were two of the keynote speakers at the LIGHT celebration.

The program was co-founded by two medical school students.