A few weeks ago, Ronald Johnson was in the throes of an experience common to many graduate students. He was making final preparations for his dissertation defense after years of research and study.

The difference between him and his peers was that Johnson wasn’t at the beginning of his career. Rather, he’s developing the third, or maybe fourth, chapter of his story after serving three decades in the U.S. Army and helping the NBA spin up its referee operations department.

For the last 10 years, he’s been at Georgia Tech, where he earned a master’s degree in operations research in 1985. Johnson is a professor of the practice in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and also was managing director of the Tennenbaum Institute for Enterprise Transformation. He teaches Statistics and Applications for engineering and computer science students, advises student groups like the Sports Business Club, and works with the Georgia Tech ROTC.

You can read more about his story here.