Conferred Saturday, May 11, 2019

Mrs. Beauty Poole Baldwin graduated from Savannah State in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. She went on to earn the master’s and educational specialist degrees in administration and supervision from the University of Georgia.

In 1984, Mrs. Baldwin made history when she became the first African-American female superintendent of a Georgia school district. She started as a teacher, becoming an assistant principal and principal of Buford Middle School before earning the job of superintendent. She served the Buford City Schools in that capacity for 10 years.

In 1997, she was instrumental in establishing Hopewell Christian Academy where she was the administrator for 16 years, and in 2014 she founded North Metro Academy of Performing Arts, a Gwinnett County Charter School.

To pay tribute to her many contributions, the Gwinnett County Board of Education named a new Norcross elementary school Baldwin Elementary in her honor in 2016.

Conferred Saturday, December 8, 2018

Ms. Annie B. Andrews serves as the assistant administrator for Human Resource Management at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) where she oversees a strategic partnership between FAA leadership and human resource services for over 45,000 federal personnel across the nation. 

A retired rear admiral, Ms. Andrews is the third African-American female to achieve this rank in the United States Navy. Her stellar 32-year naval career culminated as the Commander, Navy Recruiting Command. As the Navy’s top recruiter, she led recruitment efforts for officer and enlisted programs in both the active duty and reserve components. 

A native of Midway, Ga., Ms. Andrews holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Savannah State University, a Master of Science degree in Management from Troy State University, and has been conferred an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wilson College in Pennsylvania. Her military education includes a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the College of Naval Command and Staff; she is also a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College. 

Mr. Walter E. Gaskin is the chief executive officer of La Porte Technology Defense, an engineering Technical Development Plan (“TDP”) supplier. He previously served as the managing director in Charge of Operation Management Complex of Global Bank in Irvine, Calif.

Mr. Gaskin retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2013 following a stellar 39-year career that took him to at least 90 countries, including Brussels, Belgium, where he was deputy chairman of the NATO Military Committee – a role he assumed in 2010 after becoming just the fourth African-American in Marine Corps history to achieve three-star grade. Mr. Gaskin was one of the first four SSU Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) graduates and the only one to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

He earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma and completed the Senior Executive Seminar from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. His military education includes Amphibious Warfare School; Army Command and Staff College; Army War College; and the Combined/Joint Force Land Component Command Course. 

Mr. Will Metts is director, Strategy and Program Integration of the Cyber and Intelligence Mission Solutions division for Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector.

Mr. Metts came to Northrop Grumman following a 30 year career in the United States Navy, retiring with the rank of Rear Admiral.  He held a number of key flag officer and operational assignments, most recently as Director for Intelligence, United States Pacific Command.

Mr. Metts earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering technology from Savannah State University and master’s degrees in command, control, communications, computers and intelligence and in national security studies and strategic planning from the Naval Post Graduate School and the Naval War College, respectively.  He also completed the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program at the JFK School of Government.