Embry-Riddle Celebrates Graduates at Prescott Campus Commencement

At the commencement ceremony for Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Arizona, campus, more than 500 graduates crossed the stage to receive their degrees.

Jody Dawson, an alumna and NASA veteran, served as the keynote speaker. (Photo: Connor McShane/Embry-Riddle)

“Today, as you join the ranks of 170,000 alumni around the world, you become part of a global community defined by the relentless pursuit of excellence,” Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler, Ph.D., told graduates at the May 2 ceremony held at Prescott Valley’s Findlay Toyota Center. “I can think of no better way to mark the closing of our centennial year than with today’s commencement.”

A total of 533 graduates were awarded their diplomas, including nine who received master’s degrees. Ten Worldwide Campus students participated in the event. The class also included 31 Air Force ROTC cadets and 10 Army ROTC cadets who commissioned as officers.

Keynote speaker Jody Dawson, an alumna who has contributed to some of NASA’s most ambitious projects, credited the university with shaping her technical foundation and her lifelong commitment to exploration.

In her address, Dawson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2003, described exhilarating moments from her career: helping to give the “thumbs up” for Cassini’s Huygens probe to enter the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and waiting with her colleagues through “the seven minutes of terror” for confirmation that the Curiosity rover had landed safely on Mars.

During her 20-plus years at the space agency, she also contributed to the James Webb Space Telescope and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. In addition, Dawson served on the team that reviewed systems for the Artemis missions, including everything from the astronauts’ space suits to the rovers that will travel across the lunar surface.

Aerospace Engineering graduate André Leppert served as the class speaker. (Photo: Connor McShane/Embry-Riddle)

“There were setbacks, frustration, failure,” said Dawson, who is now a senior systems engineer with ETH Zurich Space in Switzerland, where she specializes in payload and mission systems engineering for international space missions in collaboration with NASA and the European Space Agency. 

“Some of those we worked through as a team. Some required hard decisions. And some, I had to face on my own,” she said.

Dawson later shared how she missed out on her dream of becoming an astronaut after making it to the final round of cuts.

“It’s in those moments, when we are at our most vulnerable, that real leadership is built,” Dawson told the graduates

André Leppert, an Aerospace Engineering graduate, served as class speaker. An undergraduate research scholar and a member of two honor societies, he led teams in developing and building radio-controlled aircraft for the AIAA Design/Build/Flyand Design Build Vertical Flight competitions. Leppert, who will be joining Honeywell Aerospace, encouraged his fellow graduates to “keep learning and keep growing.”

Emanuele Bossi, a Software Engineering and Data Science graduate, earned the Chancellor’s Award, the Prescott Campus’ highest honor for academic and leadership achievement. Rebekah Sokoloski, a Cyber Intelligence and Security graduate, received the Ed King Community Service Award.