On Dec. 13, the University of Georgia will welcome its newest alumni as 1,773 undergraduate and 1,433 graduate students—a combined total of 3,206—have met requirements to participate in the university’s fall Commencement ceremonies.
The undergraduate ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. Lisa Godbey Wood, U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Georgia and 1990 graduate of the UGA School of Law, will deliver the undergraduate address. The graduate ceremony will follow at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum. John Maltese, associate dean of SPIA, will deliver the graduate address. Tickets are required for all graduates and guests at the fall undergraduate ceremony, but they are not required for the graduate ceremony.
Wood earned her undergraduate degree as a First Honor Graduate from UGA in 1985. During law school, she served as managing editor of the Georgia Law Review and as chief justice of the Honor Court in addition to receiving the Isaac Meinhard Award for maintaining the highest academic average throughout all three years of law school.
Following a one-year clerkship with Judge Anthony A. Alaimo, Wood joined the Brunswick law firm Gilbert, Harrell, Sumerford, and Martin in 1991, becoming partner in 1995. She was appointed to multiple committees, including the Georgia Public Safety Board and the State Bar of Georgia’s Judicial Evaluation Committee and Disciplinary Review Panel.
In 2004, Wood was unanimously confirmed as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia and, in 2007, as a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Georgia, serving as chief judge from 2010 to 2017. She was appointed to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in 2023.
Wood is an emeritus member of UGA Athletic Association Board and serves on the UGA School of Law Board of Visitors. She has received numerous awards, including the 2015 State Bar of Georgia Distinguished Judicial Service Award, the 2023 UGA Blue Key Service Award, and the 2024 UGA School of Law Distinguished Service Scroll Award. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
UGA will recognize 26 students as First Honor Graduates for maintaining a 4.0 cumulative GPA in all work attempted at UGA as well as all college-level transfer work prior to or following enrollment at the university.
An estimated 304 doctoral candidates and 1,129 master’s and specialist degree students will be eligible to walk in the graduate ceremony.
Graduate speaker John Maltese was named a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2004 and a University Professor in 2023 for his significant contributions to UGA beyond his academic duties.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1982 and a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1989, joining UGA as an assistant professor the same year.
Maltese directed “The Carter Presidency: Lessons for the 21st Century” conference at UGA in 2007, marking the 30th anniversary of President Jimmy Carter’s inauguration, which featured Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, and key figures from their administration, and received national C-SPAN coverage and an award from CASE.
He founded the SPIA at Oxford Study Abroad program in 2003, earning recognition as Study Abroad Director of the Year by UGA’s Office of International Education. He was named U.S. Professor of the Year for Georgia by the Carnegie Foundation and CASE in 2004.
In addition to publishing award-winning books, he served as a contributing editor to “The Cook Political Report” in 2015-2016 and has written for The Washington Post. His textbook, “The Politics of the Presidency,” is currently in its 11th edition.
As a music writer and expert, Maltese won a Grammy Award in 1996 and has appeared on NPR’s “Performance Today” and PBS’s “American Masters” as a commentator.
He served as head of the political science department from 2008 to 2016, during which he launched the Applied Politics Program and supported six major faculty-organized conferences in eight years. Since 2016, he has been associate dean of SPIA.
The clear bag policy will be in effect for both ceremonies. Parking is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The graduate and undergraduate ceremonies will be broadcast live on the Commencement homepage. For more information, please visit https://commencement.uga.edu/.
