Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian will deliver the keynote address at Emory University’s 181st Commencement, scheduled for Monday, May 11. Bastian will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree during the ceremony in recognition of his exceptional contributions to business and society.
"Our graduates are entering a world that demands resilience, adaptability and leadership in uncertain times,” says Emory University Interim President Leah Ward Sears. “Ed Bastian has exemplified these qualities by transforming Delta Air Lines into an industry leader despite unprecedented challenges. His consistent leadership at Delta, coupled with his strong commitment to employees, customers and communities, offers an inspiring example of courage, responsibility and vision."
In 2026, Bastian marks 10 years as CEO of Delta, leading a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, including almost 40,000 in Georgia. Headquartered near Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Delta serves nearly 200 million travelers per year with destinations in over 50 countries.
"I am honored to serve as Emory University's 2026 Commencement speaker,” Bastian says. “For nearly 200 years, Emory has been a source of excellence, inspiration and innovation for our entire community. I'm looking forward to celebrating this achievement with the Class of 2026, and their families, friends and loved ones, as they embark on their next chapter."
A veteran Delta employee of almost 30 years, Bastian joined the company in 1998 as vice president of finance and controller. He became Delta’s chief financial officer in 2005, and in 2007 was appointed to serve as the airline’s president, before becoming CEO in 2016. In these roles, he guided the company through the most challenging periods in its history, including 9/11, bankruptcy and COVID-19. He has described his job in five words: “Taking care of our people.”
In 2018, Fortune named Bastian among “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” and in 2019, he was elected to the membership of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was honored by his peer CEOs as Chief Executive magazine’s 2023 “Chief Executive of the Year” and was selected as the 2024 “Georgian of the Year” by Georgia Trend Magazine.
During Delta’s centennial year in 2025, Bastian was named to the 2025 TIME100 and was the recipient of the 2025 Tony Jannus Award, one of the airline industry’s highest accolades. In 2026, Delta ranked No. 11 on Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list for the third consecutive year.
Delta has long been a dedicated partner of Emory, including supporting educational programs at the Goizueta Business School such as the Delta Leadership Coaching Fellows Program; collaborating with Emory’s Office of Global Strategies and Initiatives on efforts like the Free Passport Initiative; and hosting the Emory Clinic at Delta HQ, a clinic staffed with Emory Healthcare providers to deliver health care services to Delta employees.
“As two of Georgia’s largest private employers, Emory and Delta are committed to excellence, service and global influence,” Sears notes. “These shared values strengthen our institutions and benefit the wider community.”
Honorary degree recipients
During the Commencement ceremony, Emory will also award honorary degrees to education pioneers Ruth J. Simmons and Susan E. Stone.
Ruth Simmons
A groundbreaking leader in higher education for decades, Ruth Simmons is president emerita of Prairie View A&M University, Brown University and Smith College. She will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, making her only the seventh person in Emory’s history to receive both of the university’s highest honors: the honorary degree and the President’s Medal, which she was awarded in 2006.
Ruth Simmons is president emerita of Prairie View A&M University, Brown University and Smith College.
As president of Smith College from 1995 to 2001, Simmons introduced the first accredited engineering program at an all-women's college. When she left Smith to become president of Brown University, she also became the first Black president of an Ivy League institution.
Simmons led Brown from 2001 to 2012 and was named “America’s Best College President” by Time Magazine in 2001. In 2003, she appointed a Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice to examine the university’s relationship to the transatlantic slave trade, which became a model for other universities. In 2011, she was the keynote speaker for Emory’s “Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies” conference.
Coming out of retirement, Simmons served as president of Prairie View A&M from 2017 to 2023 — the first woman to lead the largest HBCU in Texas. She currently serves as President’s Distinguished Fellow at Rice University and as adviser to Harvard University’s president on HBCU initiatives, among other roles.
Simmons earned her PhD from Harvard in Romance languages and literatures. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 2024, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony. Last year, she was given the rank of officer in the French National Order of the Legion of Honor, one of the highest decorations bestowed by the French government.
Susan Stone
Certified nurse-midwife and nationally recognized nursing leader Susan E. Stone will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in recognition of her transformative contributions to midwifery, advanced practice nursing and the improvement of health care for families.
Susan Stone is president emerita and Distinguished Chair of Midwifery and Nursing at Frontier Nursing University.
From 2001 to 2024, Stone served as president of Frontier Nursing University in Versailles, Kentucky, home to the nation’s oldest and largest continually operating nurse-midwifery education program. Under her visionary leadership, Frontier sharpened its mission to prepare primary care providers for rural and underserved communities. During her tenure, the institution evolved from offering one community-based certificate program that enrolled approximately 200 students into a fully accredited university offering master’s and doctoral degrees. Enrollment expanded to more than 2,500 graduate nursing students, including nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners serving communities across the country.
Stone’s national leadership extends well beyond Frontier. She is a past president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine in 2018 — one of only two nurses selected in her class. She holds a doctor of nursing science degree from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and is a fellow of both the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American Academy of Nursing.
Now serving as president emerita and Distinguished Chair of Midwifery and Nursing at Frontier, Stone continues to advance midwifery and nursing practice nationally and internationally. The honorary degree recognizes a career devoted to expanding access to high-quality health care and strengthening the nursing and midwifery workforce for generations to come.
President’s Medal recipients
The Emory University President’s Medal honors individuals “whose impact on the world has enhanced the dominion of peace, service to humanity, or has enlarged the range of cultural achievement.” It was first presented in 1995 to Nobel Laureate His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
At Commencement, Sears will award the President’s Medal to the three Emory biomedical researchers who co-developed the antivirals that transformed HIV from a fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition: Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry Dennis Liotta, an academic drug discovery expert; Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics Raymond Schinazi, an infectious disease and antiviral expert; and former Emory post-doctoral research associate Woo-Baeg Choi.
In the early 1990s, Liotta, Schinazi and Choi announced the discovery of an unusual molecule, FTC (emtricitabine, sold alone as Emtriva, with the "Em" standing for Emory) and a chemically similar compound, 3TC (lamivudine, sold alone as Epivir). Both drugs are in the class known as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, which work against the enzyme that copies HIV RNA into new viral DNA.
It’s estimated that more than 90 percent of people in the U.S. living with HIV — and millions more around the world — have taken at least one of the drugs they discovered, alone or as key components in combination therapies, saving and improving countless lives.
Emory University Commencement Monday, May 11 Emory's 181st Commencement Ceremony is a ticketed event. Attendance is in-person for all bachelor’s degree candidates and virtual (via live webcast) for associates, master’s and doctoral degree candidates. Undergraduates in the Class of 2026 received information about registration and guest tickets via email. Visit the Commencement website for the full Commencement weekend schedule, including locations and times for school diploma ceremonies; information about planning your visit; answers to frequently asked questions; and more. |