Doctoral Ceremony Speaker

Ryan Gravel

Ryan Gravel, AICP, is an urban thinker, designer, author, and builder — an entrepreneur working on ideas about the future of cities. His master’s thesis at Georgia Tech in 1999 was the original vision for the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile transit greenway that, with 15 years of progress, is changing both the physical form of his city and the decisions people make about living there. Now a $4 billion public-private investment in the early stages of implementation, the project’s health and economic benefits are already evident through record-breaking use of its first section of mainline trail and more than $5 billion of private-sector redevelopment since 2005.

Gravel has received numerous awards and press related to his work on the Atlanta Beltline and tells his story internationally, but an essential aspect of his work is yet to come. Alongside project work at Sixpitch and research on similar “catalyst infrastructure” projects around the world, he makes a compelling case about what this movement means and why it matters. In his book, “Where We Want to Live,” (St. Martin’s Press, 2016), Gravel investigates the cultural side of infrastructure, describing how its intimate relationship with our way of life can illuminate a brighter path forward for cities.

Gravel’s story has made ink in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Monocle, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, CityLab, CNN International, USA Today, and Esquire Magazine. He has been listed among the “100 Most Influential Georgians” by Georgia Trend Magazine, 2014; the “GOOD 100” by GOOD Magazine, 2013; “Visionary Bureaucrat” by Streetsblog, 2012; and “Top 25 Newsmakers” of 2011 by Engineering News-Record. He received Trees Atlanta’s Individual Tree Champion award in 2019, a “Trailblazer” award in 2018 from the South Fork Conservancy; an “Emerging Voices” citation from the AIA-Atlanta in 2011; and the Jenny D. Thurston Memorial Award from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission in 2007. He was named one of “45 Atlantans We Love” by Atlanta Magazine in 2006; one of “40-under-40” from the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2006; and one of the “Best & Brightest” by Esquire Magazine in 2006. Other honors include a Special Award of Recognition from AIA-Atlanta in 2005 and a Golden Shoe Award for pedestrian-friendly research from PEDS in 2003.

Gravel is the board chair of Generator and serves on boards for the Partnership for Southern Equity and the MillionMile Greenway. He serves on the Urban Land Institute Atlanta’s Liveable Community Council and the Lifecycle Building Center’s advisory board.

Gravel holds a Master of Architecture, an M.S. in city planning, and a B.S. in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Master's Ceremony Speaker

Stacey A. Dixon

Stacey A. Dixon became the eighth deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) on July 1, 2019. In this role, she assists the director both in leading the agency and in managing the National System for Geospatial Intelligence.

From 2018 to 2019, she served as the fourth director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), after serving as its deputy director from 2016 to 2018. Before joining IARPA, Dixon served as the deputy director of NGA’s research directorate, where she oversaw geospatial intelligence research and development. Prior to that, she served as NGA’s chief of congressional and intergovernmental affairs, and then deputy director of NGA’s corporate communications office.

From 2007 to 2010, she was a staff member for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and from 2003 to 2007, she worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, where she was assigned to the National Reconnaissance Office’s advanced systems and technology directorate.

Dixon holds both a doctorate and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She also was a chemical engineer postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. She additionally serves as a presidentially nominated member of the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Dixon is a native of the District of Columbia, where she currently resides.

Bachelor's Morning Ceremony Speaker

Ed Bastian

As CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian leads a team of 75,000 global professionals who are building the world’s premier international airline, powered by a people-driven, customer-focused culture and spirit of innovation.

Under Bastian’s leadership, Delta is transforming the air travel experience with generational investments in technology, aircraft, airport facilities, and most importantly, Delta’s employees worldwide. A 20-year Delta veteran, Bastian has been a critical leader in Delta’s long-term strategy and a champion of putting Delta’s shared values of honesty, integrity, respect, perseverance, and servant leadership at the core of every decision.

Since being named Delta’s CEO in May 2016, Bastian has expanded Delta’s leading position as the world’s most reliable airline while growing its global footprint and enhancing the customer experience in the air and on the ground. During his tenure as CEO, Delta has become the world’s most awarded airline, having been named the Wall Street Journal’s top U.S. airline; Fortune’s most admired airline worldwide; the most on-time global airline by FlightGlobal; a Glassdoor Employee’s Choice company; and more. Delta has returned to sustained profitability, regaining its investment-grade credit rating with all three major ratings agencies and paying out more than $1 billion in profit-sharing to employees every year over the past four years. In 2018, Fortune magazine named Bastian among “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” and in 2019, he was elected to the membership of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bastian’s commitment to putting the health and safety of employees and customers first amid the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic has resulted in the airline’s industry-leading Delta CareStandard, enabling a cleaner, more reliable, and safe travel experience for the long term.

Bastian sums up his job in five words: “Taking care of our people.” This reflects his leadership philosophy, which is based on the “virtuous circle” — if you take care of your people, they take care of your customers, whose business and loyalty allow you to reward your investors.

Bastian joined Delta in 1998 as vice president, Finance and Controller, and was promoted to senior vice president in 2000. He left Delta in 2005 and became senior vice president and chief financial officer of Acuity Brands. He returned to Delta six months later to become chief financial officer, and in 2007 was appointed to serve as Delta’s president.

Prior to joining Delta, Bastian held senior finance positions at Frito-Lay International and Pepsi-Cola International. Bastion started his career with Price Waterhouse where he became an audit partner in its New York practice.

Bastian grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He lives in Atlanta and is deeply involved in his faith, family, and community.

Bachelor's Afternoon Ceremony Speaker

Paul Judge

Paul Judge is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded three companies that were acquired and has invested in more than 30 companies. He is managing partner of Panoramic Ventures, and co-founder and executive chairman of Pindrop.

Previously, Judge was co-founder of TechSquare Labs. He also was co-founder of Purewire, a web security company, which was acquired by Barracuda in 2008. He served as chief research officer at Barracuda through its IPO in 2013. Prior to this, he was chief technology officer of CipherTrust, a leader in email security, which was acquired by Secure Computing in 2006.

Judge is the lead inventor of more than 30 patents and has received many awards, including being named to Fortune’s Top 40 Under 40 List.

He is a member of the 2016 class of Henry Crown Fellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in computer science from Morehouse College.