Four Franklin College Alums Awarded 2024 Graduate School Alumni of Distinction

In 2013, the UGA Graduate School’s Graduate Education Advancement Board (GEAB) established the Alumni of Distinction award to honor graduates who have achieved exceptional success in their professional careers and in service to their communities. More specifically, the Alumni of Distinction award recognizes achievements that exemplify UGA’s mission “to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things” at local, regional, and global levels. Alumni of all UGA graduate programs are eligible for consideration for the Graduate School’s Alumni of Distinction award.

This year, of the six award recipients, four are graduates of Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Congratulations to our alums who exemplify Franklin’s curiosity, creativity and innovation. 

Khalifeh AIJadda (Ph.D. `14) is the Director of Data Science at Google. He is a distinguished computer scientist and accomplished leader in the field of data science and has extensive experience implementing complex machine learning algorithms to solve real-world challenges across diverse domains. Previously, Dr. AlJadda held the position of Senior Director of Online Data Science at Home Depot, where he spearheaded key data science initiatives. A recognized thought leader, Dr. AlJadda is the founder of the Southern Data Science Conference and co-founder of the non-profit ATLytiCS, which provides education and resources to “assist non-profits in using data-inspired decisions to aid their outreach to vulnerable populations in the Atlanta Community.”

Ashvin Chhabra (MS `84) is President and Chief Investment Officer of Euclidean Capital, a New York based family office for James H. Simons and Marilyn H. Simons. The Simons Foundation is dedicated to advancing research in mathematics and the basic sciences. It is currently one of America’s largest private funders of these areas. Dr. Chhabra made significant scientific contributions in the area of Monte Carlo simulations and non-linear dynamics before transforming into an internationally recognized leader in computational finance and a founder of goals-based wealth management.

Theda Perdue (MA `74, Ph.D. `76) is the Atlanta Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina. While enrolled in her Ph.D. program at the University of Georgia, an elective anthropology course on indigenous southerners introduced Dr. Perdue to another discipline, and she merged the two in her dissertation on Cherokee acquisition of African American slaves. Her doctoral dissertation, a study of Cherokees and slaveholding, became a now-classic study: Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1866. This was the first of several pioneering works in Native American history that examined the southeastern tribes. Many of these works remain classics in the field, still avidly read by students and scholars.

Leo Twiggs (Ed.D. `70) retired from teaching in 1998 but retains the position of Distinguished Artist in Residence at Claflin University. His work has been the subject of over 75 one-man shows and has received international recognition, with exhibits at the Studio Museum in New York and U.S. Embassies in Rome, Italy, Dakar, Senegal, and Bern, Switzerland among other venues. For over sixty years, his life experiences as an African American man born in the segregated South, as the first black graduate of the University of Georgia’s art education doctoral program, and as a father, teacher, and artist have infused his paintings.

Image: from left: Dr. Alton Standifer, Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and Chief of Staff to the Provost; Dr. Matthew Heric, Chair, Graduate Education Advancement Board; Alumni of Distinction Award Recipients: Dr. Khalifeh AlJadda, Dr. Theda Perdue, Dr. Ashvin Chhabra, Honorable Ms. Inez Tenenbaum, Dr. Leo Twiggs; Dr. Ron Walcott, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School