Home Depot CEO to speak at SPSU
Frank Blake, CEO of The Home Depot, will give a presentation on “Leadership with Integrity” on Wed., March 21, at 6 p.m. in the Student Center Theater. The program is open to all faculty and staff members, alumni and students, especially business majors.

Blake has been with The Home Depot since 2002 and has served as vice chairman of the board of directors and executive vice president for business development and corporate operations. During this time, he was responsible for real estate, credit services, store construction, strategic business development and growth initiatives. He became the chairman and CEO of the company in 2007.

Prior to joining the senior management of The Home Depot, Blake served as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) responsible for leading departmental policy decisions and managing a $19 billion annual budget. He also previously served as the senior vice president of corporate business development at General Electric (GE). There, he orchestrated worldwide mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and the identification of strategic growth opportunities. Blake also served as general counsel and head of business development for GE Power Systems.

In addition, Blake has served as general counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), deputy counsel to vice president George Bush and law clerk to Justice Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a jurisprudence degree from Columbia University School of Law. Blake also serves on the board of directors for the Georgia Aquarium.

SPSU alum earns special recognition at 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Awards
SPSU alumnus Willie Simmons was honored with a special recognition award at the 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Awards STEM Conference in Philadelphia last month.

Simmons, who graduated in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology, is the Northrop Grumman Corporation’s engineering manager for surveillance and reconnaissance. He is responsible for overseeing all airborne warning and control (AWAC) system engineering functions and is the company’s designated technical liaison with United States and international customers.

He put himself through college while working full-time and participated in SPSU’s co-op program, which confirmed that his future was in engineering.

Simmons served as a field service engineer at Westinghouse for over a decade, shuttling between the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia. In 1995, he was named an in-country representative at NATO Air Force Base in Germany, where he assisted in upgrading the AWAC radar system of the entire NATO fleet.

Now a resident of Oklahoma, Simmons also gives back to the community. In addition to coaching basketball and other youth sports, he is involved with organizations such as Big Brothers of Oklahoma City, Maryland Food Bank and WORTHY, a program of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems that helps high school students interested in math, engineering, computer science or physics to gain a better understanding of engineering and business from inside a major corporation.

“This go-to expert on one of the best, longest running airborne radar programs is a prime example of an engineer who has built competence, credibility and confidence in his technical skills brick by brick,” said a news release by organizers of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards, which have been referred to as “the academy awards of STEM.”

SPSU students score big in leadership competition
SPSU students for the first time entered a case study competition held in conjunction with the 16th Annual Georgia Collegiate Leadership Conference held on Feb. 11 and emerged from the experience with a $200 cash prize for their second-place finish.

SPSU team members were Bobby Givens, an electrical engineering major, and Matt Gosa and Kris Vickers, both construction management majors. All of the competitors were tasked with creating a student group to address student smoking on campus.

The conference is designed to enhance the leadership skills and abilities of undergraduate students and to foster interaction among campus leaders and advisors. Other schools in attendance included Dalton State College, Georgia College & State University, University of Alabama Birmingham, Valdosta State University, Georgia Highlands College, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, University of Georgia, Athens Technical College and Gainesville State College.

Faculty/staff activities
• Dr. Lourdes V. Abellera, an assistant professor of surveying and mapping in the Civil Engineering Technology Department, was invited to review the book “Introduction to 3-D Data: Modeling with ArcGIS 3-D Analyst and Google Earth” by K. Heather Kennedy. Dr. Abellera’s book review was published in the January issue of the international journal Mathematical Geosciences. This is the third review she has had published in a highly regarded journal such as the Journal of the American Water Resources Association.

• Dr. Donald Ariail, associate professor of accounting, has co-authored his second teaching novel in the guise of a fast-paced murder mystery. “The Ultimate Rip-Off: A Taxing Tale,” published by Carolina Academic Press follows in the steps of his 2011 “Costly Reflections in a Midas Mirror” by weaving accounting and tax material into the plot. Dr. Ariail co-authored both books with Dr. Larry Crumbley of Louisiana State University.

• Dr. Ron Dempsey, vice president for advancement, will become president-elect of the Rotary Club of Etowah on July 1.

Photo of your new tag could win iPad!
More of the new SPSU tags are being spotted on vehicles on and around the campus every day, but the university is giving motorists extra motivation to apply for their tag now rather than later.

The first 100 people to post a photo of themselves with the new tag on their vehicles on the Southern Polytechnic State University Alumni Facebook page (www.facebook.com/spsualumni) and/or e-mail the photo to events@spsu.edu will be entered into a drawing to win an iPad.

If you have already had your birthday in 2012, you will only need to pay a $35 special tag fee to get one. If not, you may wait until your birthday, at which point you will have to pay your ad valorem tax, the usual $20 tag fee and the $35 special tag fee. If you request your SPSU tag before your birthday, you will have to pay the $35 special fee a second time when your birthday comes around.

IKRC’s Spring Speaker Series kicks off
The International Knowledge and Research Center (IKRC) will hold its first event of the Spring Speaker Series – a panel discussion on sustainable operations and maintenance for facilities – today at 11:30 a.m. in Q-202.

Professionals participating in the panel discussion include Stacy Abbate, general manager of CBRE; Gabriel Eckerts, executive director of Building Owners and Managers of Atlanta (BOMA); and Ian Hughes, senior vice president of Jones Lang Lasalle. The panel will be moderated by Bob Fuhr, vice president of business development for SBS Enterprises.

The IKRC provides creative, practical and sustainable solutions for world-wide green building, supply chain and technology transformation.

CM Department hosts Sporting Clays Fundraiser
SPSU’s Construction Management Department (CM) is hosting a Sporting Clays Fundraiser this Friday, March 9, at Etowah Valley Sporting Clays in Dawsonville, Ga.

This networking event is geared toward bringing CM alumni, the departments industry advisory board members, students and the construction industry together for a day of sporting clays. Beginners, rookies and volunteers are all welcome.

Sporting clays are a form of clay pigeon shooting that simulates the unpredictability of live-quarry shooting, offering a great variety of angles, trajectories, speeds, elevations, distances and target sizes. It is often described as “golf with a shotgun.”

The cost of the event is $200 per participant or $750 for teams of four. This price includes clay targets, ammo, golf cart rental and lunch. There are also sponsorship opportunities ranging from $150-$2,500. Both 12 and 20 gauge shotguns are allowed, and rifles will be available to rent for $20 each.  Participants must bring their own eye and ear protection for safety reasons.

Cherri Watson, director of education for Associated General Contractors of Georgia and also chair of the SPSU Construction Management Advisory Board Outreach Committee, is in charge of the Sporting Clays Fundraiser.

Registration is available online at www.agcga.org. For more information, contact Watson at Watson@agcga.org

New staff members in financial aid and human resources
The SPSU community welcomes two new staff members: La Tonya Bonner-White in the Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid and Francesca Vaughn in the Office of Human Resources.

La Tonya Bonner-White brings more than 17 years of experience to her new position as the information technology systems support specialist for financial aid. Prior to SPSU, she worked for eight years at Georgia Piedmont Technical College (the former Dekalb Technical College) and nine years at Clayton State University.

In human resources, Vaughn is the new face. She is an alumna of California State University, East Bay (Hayward Campus) and recently received an executive certificate in human resource management. She has worked for some of the largest personnel and staffing services in San Francisco. Before moving to Marietta, she was an executive assistant for Chang & Associates in Berkeley, Calif., for more than five years.

Have news to share?
If your department has an upcoming event or other news to share with the campus community, please send an e-mail with all the pertinent information to Diane Payne (dpayne@spsu.edu). To be considered for use in a specific issue of the SPSU Hornet’s Nest, a news item must be submitted no less than four weeks before the date of the issue.

Volume 5, Issue 9
March 7, 2012