2024 Alumni and Legacy Awards

Inaugurated in 2015, the Distinguished Alumni Awards celebrate excellence in the College community. We present three categories of awards: the Distinguished Alumni Awards, recognizing graduates from each of our six academic Schools and from each of our ROTC branches of service; the Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Awards, honoring a faculty member and graduate and undergraduate students; and the Dean’s Appreciation Award, honoring steadfast friends and supporters of the College.

The Distinguished Alumni Awards honor graduates from each of the six academic Schools in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and from each of our ROTC branches of service.

Wendy Horton McLeod, M.S. ECON 1996

Wendy Horton McLeod leads an analytics team at Cox Automotive that supports sales by providing insights on product adoption and revenue. Prior to Cox Automotive, McLeod’s career spanned more than 20 years in the telecommunications industry. She worked at Sprint for six years after graduating from Georgia Tech in 1996, then began working for Cox Communications in 2002. Her roles at Cox include support for technology, customer care, and product organizations through process improvement, program management, and analytics. She is a certified Project Management Professional and a Six Sigma Black Belt. McLeod is an active volunteer with Young Life and is a member of Northside Church. She lives in Vinings with her husband John, ECON 1989, M.S. Econ 1994, and their two children.

J. Danielle Sharpe, HTS 2014

J. Danielle Sharpe is an epidemiologist and Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she supports sub-Saharan African countries affected by the global HIV epidemic. She also responds to domestic and international epidemics, including Covid-19 and mpox. Previously, Sharpe was the lead of CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index project, where she helped develop health equity metrics to guide equitable distribution of public health resources to U.S. communities disproportionately affected by social inequities. She earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology from Emory University, a master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in history, technology, and society from Georgia Tech.

Betsy Bulat, IAML-Spanish 2004

Betsy Bulat serves as a senior equity partner at Martenson, Hasbrouck & Simon, LLP, where she defends labor and employment litigation and counsels companies and executives on employment and related business matters. Bulat has been selected as a “Rising Star” by Georgia Super Lawyer magazine, designated as “Legal Elite” in labor and employment law by Georgia Trend Magazine, and has obtained a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating. While attending Georgia Tech, Bulat was a member of the cross-country and track teams and the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She remains active with Georgia Tech, where she serves as chair of the Alumni Association’s Board of Trustees.

Sarah W. Mallory, STC 2003

Sarah W. Mallory is the Annette and Oscar de la Renta Assistant Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. She is completing her Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture at Harvard University. She previously held positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection. She holds a B.S. in Science, Technology, and Culture Studies from Georgia Tech; an M.A. in Design History from The Parsons School of Design; and an M.A. in Art History from New York University. She curates numerous exhibitions and is writing a visual history of wetland environments with the hope of encouraging their preservation the world over.

Kelly Kloster Hon, ME and German 2011

Kelly Kloster Hon is a STEMinist working towards a future with gender parity and equality in engineering. Since earning her bachelor’s and master’s in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech, Hon has driven critical business outcomes across consumer and medical products. She is a senior manager for product development engineering at Becton Dickinson, a global medical technology company. She previously led the company’s Women’s Initiative Network. Hon serves as a senator for the Society of Women Engineers and is a member of the board of directors of Athena (a premier women’s advocacy organization that fast tracks women in STEM through leadership development) and a member of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Young Alumni Council.

C. Michael Cassidy, M.S. TASP 1987

C. Michael Cassidy serves as executive director of Emory Innovations, Inc., a holding company of programs that enhance innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization of intellectual property at Emory University. Previously, Cassidy engineered and led the emergence of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) as one of the nation’s premier organizations for technology-based economic development. During his 25-year tenure with GRA, he developed the vision and led the strategic direction of the public-private organization. Cassidy is a senior fellow at the Council on Competitiveness, a trustee emeritus of the State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI), and past chair of SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council, which advances the cause of public investment in scientific research and entrepreneurship.

Col. Stephen C. Hall, Air Force ROTC, IM 1967

Col. Stephen C. Hall is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and a former senior fellow at L-3 Communications Systems-West in Salt Lake City and now serves as a distinguished professor of the practice in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. He and his wife, Pam, also provide generous support for scholarship programs at Georgia Tech and Spelman College. Hall is a frequent lecturer at Georgia Tech, Morehouse College, and the University of Utah — where he lectures on World War II history and his favorite subject, the birth of rock and roll.

LTC Greg D. Louden, Army ROTC, ME 1988

LTC Greg D. Louden was commissioned into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the Georgia Tech ROTC program. After serving as a sapper in an armored cavalry regiment and a light infantry brigade, he completed his military career as an Army nuclear and counterproliferation officer. After retirement, Louden provided contract support to U.S. Department of Defense and National Nuclear Security Administration programs. He also supported a Defense Threat Reduction Agency global nuclear security program effort developing computer-based nuclear security training for the International Atomic Energy Agency. Louden returned to Georgia Tech in 2017 to take a position with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, where he leads the Advanced Warfighting Technologies Division. The division develops concepts and capabilities for ground maneuver warfare.

Maj. David Van Pham, Navy ROTC, MGT 2010

Maj. David Van Pham is a Marine Corps officer, operations specialist at the United States Digital Service under the White House, and founder of Phamily Fund Inc., a nonprofit for inner-city youth outreach. As an infantry company commander, he led teams across the world and conducted critical missions in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. A native of Savannah, Pham takes pride in being a husband, first-generation college graduate, passionate philanthropist, and most fondly, the son of an immigrant single mother. He hopes to use his experiences and faith to improve immigrant and inner-city communities.

The Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Awards honor faculty and students whose lives and work embody the spirit of Georgia Tech alumnus Ivan Allen Jr. As stewards of Mayor Allen’s legacy, the College champions research, teaching, and service that encompass Mayor Allen’s visionary urban policies and his values of social courage, social justice, and ethical action.

The Legacy Awards are made possible by our generous supporters, Col. Stephen C. Hall and Mrs. Pamela Hall.

Kristin Hsu, B.S. Literature, Media, and Communication

Kristin Hsu studies literature, media, and communication with minors in computer science and Korean. She serves her 180+ member sorority as chapter president, focusing her efforts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and collaborations with other on-campus organizations. Hsu is also actively involved in research, campus tours, and student media publications, including the Technique newspaper and the Blueprint yearbook. With a love for inclusive storytelling, Hsu hopes to continue to give back to her community at Georgia Tech and beyond.

Emma J. Menardi, PUBP, HTS 2023, M.S. PUBP 2025

Emma Menardi is a master’s student in public policy and recent graduate of Georgia Tech, where she studied public policy, history, and sociology. A social scientist at heart, her research focuses on issues of inequality in science, technology, and public health. As a research assistant with the Women, Science, and Technology team, she studies scientific authors and knowledge production in the specialty of Women, Science, and Engineering. Outside the lab, her work examines HIV policy, testing technologies, and bioethics.

Gordon Kingsley, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy

Gordon Kingsley conducts research and teaches in the areas of public management, policy implementation, and public policy. His research examines the development and implementation of effective partnerships across the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

His current research explores the impacts of partnerships on organization structure and the development and allocation of scientific and technical human capital. This work is currently being conducted in two policy domains examining: 1) public strategies to discern and adapt to the emergence of new technologies; and 2) the creation of transportation infrastructure with a focus on privatization and complex contracting amongst engineering organizations and public agencies.

The Dean’s Appreciation Award signals the importance of teaching, research, and service in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the value of an educational experience informed by the ideals of Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. The award honors individuals associated with the College who have made extraordinary contributions to its advancement, reputation, and mission. Recipients of the award, through their affiliation, work, or witness, have become notable members of the Ivan Allen College community.

Joseph R. Bankoff was appointed chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in the spring of 2012 following six years as president & CEO of The Woodruff Arts Center and 32 years as a senior partner at the Atlanta-based law firm of King & Spalding. His association with Georgia Tech spans more than a decade and has been primarily focused on his work as the head of the law firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice group. In 1998 he worked with his then-law partner, former Sen. Sam Nunn, in the creation of the first of the Nunn Policy Forum at Georgia Tech. He served as the former chair of the nominating committee for the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage.