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Aviation/Aerospace Leaders to Speak at Embry-Riddle Commencement

Daytona Beach, Fla., Dec. 3, 2004 -- A total of 307 students at the Daytona Beach campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will graduate this month in four separate ceremonies.

At 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, commencement will be held for College of Aviation students in the ICI Center and for College of Business students in the Miller Instructional Center auditorium. At 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, College of Arts & Sciences students will attend ceremonies in the Miller Instructional Center auditorium and College of Engineering students in the ICI Center.

Allen Haggerty, the president of Embry-Riddle’s Aerospace Engineering Advisory Board and a senior lecturer at MIT, will speak at the College of Engineering commencement. Haggerty retired from The Boeing Company in 2001 as the vice president and general manager of engineering for the Military Aircraft and Missile Systems Group. At that time he was named a Boeing Honorary Senior Technical Fellow. Haggerty is a recipient of the S.A.E. Clarence “Kelley” Johnson Aerospace Design and Development Award as well as Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine’s Laurels Award for Outstanding Contributions to Aeronautics and Propulsion.

The speaker for the College of Business ceremony is Damon D’Agostino, a vice president at CIT Aerospace, where he is responsible for the sale and leasing of CIT’s commercial aircraft to airlines operating in North America and the South Pacific. In 2001, he founded and became the director of CIT Aerospace Australia. D’Agostino earned a B.S. degree in Aviation Business Administration from Embry-Riddle and has remained an active alumnus. Currently he serves on the university’s College of Business Industrial Advisory Board. Previously D’Agostino was a founding member of the university’s Annual Fund Leadership Advisory Council, appeared at student panels, and was a guest lecturer in College of Business classes.

Dr. John Johnson, Embry-Riddle’s provost and chief academic officer, will be the speaker at the College of Arts & Sciences commencement. Before joining Embry-Riddle, he was the provost and vice president for Academic Affairs and a professor of Biology at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. Dr. Johnson has taught courses at all levels in the fields of Biology, Speech, and Hearing Science. In addition, he has published extensively in his discipline and has been a tenured full professor at four universities.

The speaker for the College of Aviation ceremony is Dr. Tim Brady, a professor and the dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus, where he was formerly chairman of the Applied Aviation Sciences Department. Dr. Brady is the president of the Council on Aviation Accreditation and serves on its Board of Trustees. He is also the lead author of the college textbook The American Aviation Experience: A History and has written more than 40 externally funded grants or contracts totaling nearly $4 million.

Haggerty and D’Agostino will receive Embry-Riddle’s Distinguished Speaker Award, which recognizes individuals for their professional accomplishments, national or international stature, or exceptional contributions to society.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs through its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering and meets the needs of students and industry through educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 28,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through its Extended Campus at more than 130 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and worldwide through distance learning.

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