John Anthony Maltese, associate dean of the School of Public and International Affairs and the Albert B. Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law in the Department of Political Science, will deliver the Fall 2024 Graduate Commencement address on Dec. 13 in Stegeman Coliseum. The graduate ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m., preceded by the undergraduate ceremony at 10 a.m.

Maltese was named a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2004. He was also named a University Professor in 2023 for making a significant impact on the university beyond his normal academic responsibilities.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1982 and his Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1989.  He joined UGA as an assistant professor in January 1989.

He directed a major conference at UGA, “The Carter Presidency: Lessons for the 21st Century”, in January 2007 on the 30th anniversary of the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter, which brought Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, most members of their administration, leading historians and political scientists, and members of the media to campus. C-SPAN provided nationwide coverage of the conference, which won the Grand Award for Institutional Events, District III, from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

Maltese founded the SPIA at Oxford Study Abroad program in 2003, for which he was named Study Abroad Director of the Year by UGA’s Office of International Education (the precursor to the Office of Global Engagement). He was also named U.S. Professor of the Year for the state of Georgia by the Carnegie Foundation and CASE in 2004. He served as a contributing editor to “The Cook Political Report” in 2015-2016 and has published editorials in The Washington Post.

In his spare time Maltese writes about music, for which he won a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1996. As an expert on music, he has appeared on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and as a commentator on a documentary on violinist Jascha Heifetz that aired on the PBS television series “American Masters.”

He served as department head of political science from 2008 to 2016, during which time he shepherded the creation of the highly successful Applied Politics Program and facilitated six major conferences in eight years organized by members of his faculty. He has served as associate dean of SPIA since 2016.

Lisa Godbey Wood, United States district judge for the Southern District of Georgia and 1990 graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, will deliver the fall undergraduate Commencement address.

Wood earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia in 1985. After law school, she clerked for a federal judge and joined the Brunswick law firm of Gilbert, Harrell, Sumerford and Martin, becoming a partner in 1995. She has served on multiple legal and public safety committees and is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 2004, she was appointed as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, followed by her 2007 confirmation as a U.S. District Court Judge. In 2023, she joined the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. Wood has received numerous awards, including UGA’s Blue Key Service Award in 2023 and the Distinguished Service Scroll Award in 2024.

For more information about Commencement, please visit commencement.uga.edu.

Originally reported by UGA Today.