Local Business Leaders to be Honored for Achievements and Contributions to Atlanta Business Community

Ed Bastian and Kathy Waller will join the prestigious group of individuals previously inducted into the JA Atlanta Business Hall of Fame

ATLANTA– Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia and Atlanta Business Chronicle are pleased to announce that Ed Bastian, Chief Executive Officer, Delta Air Lines, and Kathy Waller, retired Chief Financial Officer, The Coca-Cola Company and Executive Director, Atlanta Committee for Progress, will be inducted into the JA Atlanta Business Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 25, 2023. They will join the group of 99 influential Atlantans previously inducted for their significant contributions to Atlanta’s economic and civic vibrancy.

Celebrating its 33rd year, the JA Atlanta Business Hall of Fame, a black-tie gala to benefit JA of Georgia, is held to honor dynamic business and civic leaders who have shaped Atlanta into the robust city it is today.

“We are so honored to be inducting these two extraordinary people,” said John Hancock, President and CEO, JA of Georgia. “Mr. Bastian’s leadership of Delta Air Lines, particularly in the past few years, has served as a model for leaders around the country and the world. His leadership of the world’s number one airline, coupled with his many civic commitments in Atlanta, speaks to his incredible leadership capacity. Similarly, Ms. Waller’s story is one of inspiration for so much accomplished in a pioneering business career and for so much given to our community. As a native Atlantan and Douglas High School graduate, she epitomizes the best of this place and remains one of our most relevant and uplifting leaders.”

Ed Bastian has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Delta Air Lines since 2016. He leads the team of 80,000 employees across the globe, all who are focused on building the worlds’ premier international airline. Bastian has been with Delta for 24-years total, working his way from Vice President and Controller to Chief Financial Officer to President, and now CEO. Bastian has guided the company through some of its most challenging times – most recently the COVID-19 pandemic – while remaining committed to its people-focused culture and spirit of innovation. During his time as CEO, Delta has become the world’s most awarded airline and maintains a transcendent presence in its headquarters of Atlanta. In 2018 Fortune magazine named Bastian one of ‘The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’, and his values-based leadership strategy can be summed up in his own words as ‘taking care of our people.’ Before joining Delta, Bastian held senior finance positions at Frito-Lay International and Pepsi-Cola International. He started his career with Price Waterhouse, where he became an audit partner in its New York practice. Bastian currently serves on the board for the Woodruff Arts Center and has chaired the boards of the Atlanta Metro Chamber and the Atlanta Committee for Progress. He grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Throughout her 32 years at The Coca-Cola Company, Kathy Waller’s journey accomplished a full circle: her first position at the company was as a senior accountant with the primary responsibility for preparing the then-CFO for his financial reporting to the Board of Directors. In 2019 she retired as Coca-Cola’s Chief Financial Officer. During her decades-long career, she held leadership roles of increasing seniority, ultimately becoming the first woman and first Black person to be a CFO at a Fortune 100 company. In 2007 Waller was selected as a founding member of the company’s Women’s Leadership Council where she led female executives in senior roles through the ranks of the company and towards better understanding and empowering themselves. Waller is currently the Executive Director of the Atlanta Committee for Progress and serves on the boards of The University of Rochester (her alma mater), Spelman College, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, The Woodruff Arts Center, and Achieve Atlanta. She has corporate board roles at Delta Air Lines, Beyond Meat, CGI Inc., and Cadence Bancorporation.

The JA Atlanta Business Hall of Fame will feature a cocktail reception, silent auction, seated dinner, and laureate induction ceremony. The 2023 gala will be held at Flourish Atlanta in Buckhead. Proceeds from the event will benefit JA of Georgia and its efforts to empower the next generation to build a better future for themselves and their community. To learn more, click here.

The Power of Engagement and Experiential Learning

By Julian Arias, Vice President, JA Discovery Center Experience

It’s now nearly six weeks into the new school year. Long enough for students to be back in classrooms and settling into their new routines, but not quite long enough to be counting down until summer again. Today’s educators are challenged with connecting with students who have more distractions than all of the generations before them, plus instantaneous access to connections that seem more intriguing than algebra.

It comes down to engagement; making learning relevant to the realities that our students are facing and motivating them to engage in their own futures.

This isn’t new insight into one of the issues facing education systems, nor is it revolutionary, but it is becoming more and more important with each passing year. In order for students to get the most out of their educational experiences and for those experiences to positively impact their trajectory, they must be engaging. We have a responsibility to provide students with opportunities that open their eyes to future possibilities, leading to a self-driven desire to be the lead character in their own story.

My role at JA of Georgia focuses on this particular goal: to deliver consistent best-in-class experiences to the more than 80,000 middle school students and educators who visit our JA Discovery Centers across the state every year. We are, at our core, a business-integrated education partner. That means that the work we do is in lockstep with the most pertinent needs and gaps that our students and schools are facing. We don’t provide a supplementary experience, but one that works within the state-regulated curriculum to provide an opportunity that brings lessons out of the textbooks and into students’ hands.

JA Discovery Centers house our two immersive middle school programs – JA BizTown and JA Finance Parks – which give students the chance to be an adult for the day. In 6th grade, student interact within a simulated economy and take on the challenge of starting and running a business. After in-class curriculum around the circular flow of the economy and what it means to be a citizen, students have a job within one of the many storefronts in JA BizTown, and they learn what it’s like to work that job. Students earn (and spend!) a paycheck, pay taxes, vote for their elected officials for the day, and ultimately work with their peers towards a common goal of paying back their start-up loan.

In 7th or 8th grade, students manage a household budget and learn about personal finance. After in-class lessons on subjects like budgeting and credit scores, students are assigned a random ‘life situation’ with an education level, salary, and family scenario. They visit storefronts representing the major line items in a budget – housing, utilities, food, etc. – and work towards providing for themselves and their families within their assigned means. Throughout the day they apply for car and home loans and discover the impact a credit score has on financial well-being.

The magic of these programs doesn’t come from cutting-edge technology or something students have never seen before; it comes from providing an experience that is authentic and genuine, and one that engages them differently than their day-to-day classroom routine. It opens their eyes to the careers and industries that exist beyond what their parents do, and it gives them a chance to see the implications that their real-life decisions can have on their futures, but with a safety net and learning opportunity built in.

Seeing the ‘ah-ha’ moments that come with those real-life decisions is one of my favorite parts of my job. One powerful moment I’ll never forget was having a student in JA Finance Park who was reserved, but particularly interested in the budgeting and home loan process. At the end of the simulation, the student asked their volunteer if he could have a copy of the materials to take home; his family had just moved to the U.S., and they hoped to one day own a home but were unfamiliar with the process. That student wasn’t just going through the motions of an activity, he was soaking in all the information he could so that he could empower his family to achieve their dreams. That’s the power of experiential learning in an authentic environment that engages students in their education.

When I think about our growth throughout Georgia and reaching our goal of 90 percent of middle school students having access to this programming, I think about the way it will shape this next generation of leaders and their families. These students who have access to the entire world at their fingertips and who are getting used to TikTok-sized versions of information – they will be the ones coming up with the next life-changing technology and helping to shape the future of our communities. It’s an obligation and a privilege to provide them a foundation that effectively prepares them for life after school, regardless of what path that life takes. Engaging them in their education today has the potential to ignite an entirely new tomorrow.