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Distinguished Alumni to Address Summer Graduates

Two UCF alumni who have excelled in their careers and devoted decades of volunteer service to the university will speak at summer commencements Saturday, Aug. 3.

Ceremonies at the CFE Arena will begin at 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., with the procession of graduates starting 20 minutes before each ceremony. Doors will open about 90 minutes before each ceremony.

The speaker at the morning ceremony will be Micky Grindstaff, chair of the UCF Board of Trustees and a partner in the law firm Shutts & Bowen LLP.

Grindstaff is a past chair of the UCF Foundation and a past director of the UCF Athletic Association and UCF Alumni Association. He is a member of the College of Business Administration Hall of Fame, and he won the college’s 50th Anniversary Award for Excellence. He also is a past chairman, president and vice president of the Golden Knights Club.

Grindstaff earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the university in 1978 before earning his law degree at Mercer University in 1982.

Afternoon graduates will hear from Jo Anne Puglisi, a 1973 mechanical engineering graduate who has spent 40 years working in military aviation simulation [1] and aircraft development [2]. She has worked with Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training in Orlando since 1993.

Puglisi has served on the Alumni Association’s board of directors. She earned UCF’s Distinguished Alumna Award in 1980, and she won the 2012 Distinguished College of Engineering and Computer Science Alumna award.

She has provided UCF engineering students with invaluable expertise and mentoring as they completed their senior projects. She also has spearheaded and sponsored special “Donuts and OJ” events during final exams.

The 9 a.m. ceremony will feature graduates from the College of Arts & Humanities [3], College of Business Administration [4], College of Education and Human Performance [5], College of Graduate Studies [6], Office of Undergraduate Studies [7], and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management [8].

The 2:30 p.m. ceremony will be held for graduates from the College of Engineering & Computer Science [9], College of Health and Public Affairs [10], College of Medicine [11], College of Nursing [12], College of Optics & Photonics [13], and the College of Sciences [14].

About 3,770 are in the summer graduating class. The graduates include 2,927 who filed intents to receive bachelor’s degrees, 719 for master’s degrees, one for an education specialist degree, 26 for education doctoral degrees, and 99 for Ph.D.s.

Tickets are required for guests to attend the ceremonies and are available from graduates. Guests without tickets are welcome to view closed-circuit telecasts of the ceremonies from the FAIRWINDS Alumni Center across the street from the CFE Arena, the Student Union, and on Campus Cable Channel 21.

Parking for guests will be available in garages C, D and H.

Gemini Boulevard will be closed from North Orion Boulevard to West Plaza Drive from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to accommodate pedestrians.