Athens, Ga. – Sen. Saxby Chambliss will deliver the address for the University of Georgia’s fall semester undergraduate Commencement at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 15 in Stegeman Coliseum. The graduate ceremony, held later that day at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum, will feature speaker M. Terry Coffey. Coffey, who earned his Ph.D. in animal science/nutrition from UGA, is president of Production Operations East for N.C.-based Murphy-Brown LLC, which is a leading turkey producer and the world’s largest producer of pork. The student speaker for the undergraduate ceremony will be Ramona Condell, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, who is earning degrees in linguistics and Spanish.
An estimated 1,800 undergraduate students and 600 graduate students will be eligible to graduate.
“We are honored to have such a distinguished alumnus with a strong record of public service to the state of Georgia return to his alma mater to deliver this Commencement address,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “Sen. Chambliss has been a good friend of the University of Georgia, and I am looking forward to hearing the words of wisdom he will share with our graduates.”
In 1994, Chambliss was first elected to represent Georgia’s 8th congressional district; in 2002, he became Georgia’s 63rd U.S. senator. His tenure is notable for his work in agriculture, homeland security and intelligence.
The past chair of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, Chambliss is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Rules Committee. He chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Chambliss, who holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UGA and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law, formerly represented a south Georgia district heavily dependent on agriculture. As past chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, he helped draft two farm bills and reformed the federal crop insurance program.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Chambliss’ House intelligence subcommittee released a report detailing shortcomings in U.S. intelligence. In 2006, he received the CIA Director’s Award, the agency’s highest award.
In 1998, Chambliss received another top award, the Air Force Association’s W. Stuart Symington Award. In 2005, he won the Reserve Officers Association’s Minuteman of the Year Award.
Chambliss is a member of the Senate Caucus on Military Depots, Arsenals and Ammunition Plants, the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation, the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, the Rural Health Caucus, the Juvenile Diabetes Caucus and he is the co-chair of the Senate Reserve Caucus. He and his wife, Julianne, live in Moultrie, Ga.
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