Each year, the College of Engineering recognizes select alumni who have contributed to the profession, advanced in their careers, and enhanced the lives of others both personally and professionally. Three ISyE alumni received awards at this year’s induction ceremony.

Michelle Jarrard, IE 1989, and Major General Kelly McKeague, BSIE 1981, MSIE 1987, both received The Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award for their distinguished contributions to the profession, field, Institute, or society at large. Dennis V. Vohs, IE 1976, received an Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame Award is for his meritorious engineering and managerial contributions during his career.

Michelle Jarrard is a director of McKinsey & Company. In her capacity as director of firm personnel (CHRO), she leads the firm’s people functions for all firm members globally, which includes: Recruiting; Learning; Compensation; Benefits; Evaluation and Promotion; Diversity; Workforce Planning; HR Tools, Metrics, Policies and Risk Management. She serves on the firm’s operating committee, the group of directors appointed by the managing director to oversee the firm’s operations worldwide. Jarrard originally joined McKinsey in 1989 in the Atlanta office. Her client service focused on operational transformations for clients in industrial and service-based industries. In 2004, she moved to London for an assignment as the chief of staff to the firm’s managing director, and she accepted her current role in 2007. Outside the firm, Jarrard has had a lifelong interest in community service and currently serves on the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Operating Board and the Georgia Tech Board of Trustees.

Major General Kelly McKeague was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1981 through Georgia Tech’s Air Force ROTC program, and began his Air Force career as an industrial engineer serving in a variety of assignments at base and headquarters levels.  In 1995, Kelly transferred to the Maryland Air National Guard and has served on active duty in myriad base engineering and legislative affairs positions.  Among his general officer positions at the Pentagon were chief of staff of the National Guard Bureau and Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for National Guard Matters. McKeague currently serves as deputy director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has worldwide responsibility for the analysis and investigation, search and recovery, and forensic laboratory operations to account for Americans service members missing from World War II to the first Persian Gulf War. Kelly is of Native Hawaiian ancestry, and coming to Georgia Tech marked his first trip out of Hawaii. He serves on the ISyE advisory board.

Dennis V. Vohs is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Ross Systems, an application software company. Early in his career, he held a variety of technical positions at IBM. In 1969 he joined Atlanta-headquartered Management Science America (MSA), where he held various management positions including executive vice president and president of MSA Advanced Manufacturing. In 1988 he led a group of investors in a leveraged buyout of Silicon Valley-based Ross Systems. He served as its chairman and CEO until he retired in 2000. He has held positions on the boards of Corporate Software, Frame Technology, Coin Financial Systems and Stamford Systems. In non-profit organizations, he has served as president of CURE - Childhood Cancer Research & Support Board, served on the industry association’s ITAA micro software board, and served on the advisory board to the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the Hammock Dunes Club, served on the Board of Visitors at Emory University, and served on the Foundation Board of the Daytona State College. Currently he is a member of the Board of Supervisors for the Dunes Community Development District, where he serves as treasurer, and the Hammock Dunes Home Owners Association, where he heads the community planning committee.