{"73660":{"#nid":"73660","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Mayor Shirley Franklin to Address Undergraduates","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAtlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin will deliver the address to the undergraduates at the Georgia Institute of Technology\u0027s 223rd commencement ceremony at 9 a.m. on Saturday, December 17, 2005 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will address the graduate ceremony at 3 p.m. The ceremonies are expected to feature 1,350 graduates. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EShirley Franklin became the fifty-eighth mayor of Atlanta in 2002. A first-time candidate for public office, Franklin redefined history and was elected as the city\u0027s first woman mayor and the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city. She was re-elected to a second term on November 8, 2005.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESince her first inauguration in 2002, Mayor Franklin has worked to build a  \u0022Best in Class\u0022 city by strengthening existing frameworks, implementing progressive changes, and making the tough decisions necessary to improve Atlanta. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMayor Franklin vowed to give Atlantans the cleanest urban streams and rivers in the country and declared herself \u0022the sewer mayor.\u0022 In 2004, she persuaded Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough to chair a panel of nationwide environmental experts to design a program that became Clean Water Atlanta. The panel recommendations laid the foundation for a  $3.2 billion overhaul of the city\u0027s aging water and sewer system. Franklin convinced the General Assembly to allow Atlanta to place a municipal option sales tax before the voters. Atlantans overwhelmingly passed the sales tax referendum generating money for Clean Water Atlanta and reducing the necessary increase in water and sewer rates.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFranklin earned her bachelor\u0027s degree in sociology from Howard University and was awarded her master\u0027s degree in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded honorary degrees from Howard University and the Atlanta College of Art. Franklin has been a resident of southwest Atlanta for nearly thirty-five years and is a proud parent of three adult children.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMaster\u0027s and Ph.D. Commencement Speaker Michael Griffin\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate, Dr. Michael Griffin began his duties as the eleventh administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on April 14, 2005. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAs administrator, he leads the NASA team and manages its resources as NASA seeks to advance the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPrior to being nominated as NASA administrator, Griffin was serving as head of the Space Department at Johns Hopkins University\u0027s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. He was previously president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel and also served in several positions within Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, including chief executive officer of Orbital\u0027s Magellan Systems Division.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGriffin received a bachelor\u0027s degree in physics from Johns Hopkins University, a master\u0027s degree in aerospace science from Catholic University of America, a Ph.D. in aerospace\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nengineering from the University of Maryland, a master\u0027s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, a master\u0027s degree in applied physics from Johns Hopkins University, a master\u0027s degree in business administration from Loyola College, and a master\u0027s degree in civil engineering from George Washington University. He is a certified flight instructor with instrument and multiengine ratings.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAlan Kay to Receive Honorary Degree\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlan Kay is recognized as the father of the personal computer and is the first computationalist to be awarded an honorary degree from Georgia Tech. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne of the founders of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Kay led one of several groups that developed modern workstations (and the forerunners of the Macintosh); Smalltalk, the overlapping-window interface; Desktop Publishing; the Ethernet; Laser printing; and network \u0022client-servers.\u0022 He has devoted his work to changing the way science is taught by developing interfaces through which the concept of building things is the central focus.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHis pioneering work in this area led to the outgrowth of the GVU Center, and Georgia Tech was the first place to teach his current form of Smalltalk, Squeak, to undergraduates.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"NASA chief Michael Griffin to address graduates"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will address the graduates at Tech\u0027s 223rd commencement ceremony.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Tech holds 223rd commencement ceremony"}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2005-12-14 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:00:59","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2005-12-14T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2005-12-14T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"73661":{"id":"73661","type":"image","title":"Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin","body":null,"created":"1449178002","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:26:42","changed":"1475894385","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:45"},"73662":{"id":"73662","type":"image","title":"NASA Administrator Michael Griffin","body":null,"created":"1449178002","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:26:42","changed":"1475894382","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:42"}},"media_ids":["73661","73662"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/","title":"NASA"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.atlantaga.gov\/Mayor\/Meet.aspx","title":"City of Atlanta Online"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}