Five outstanding engineering alumni and one longtime faculty member of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering were honored by the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council during a ceremony Friday, Sept. 13, for their distinguished professional careers. These alumni include four who were recognized as Distinguished Auburn Engineers, one as an Outstanding Young Auburn Engineer, and a mechanical engineering professor emeritus for Superior Service. The council also honored alumnus Charles Gavin, ’59 textile engineering, who received an honorary doctorate of science at the December 2024 commencement ceremonies.

Distinguished Auburn Engineers

Shirley Boulware / ’91 Chemical Engineering

Shirley Boulware is a 1991 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering through the pulp and paper option, who also earned her MBA from Auburn University at Montgomery. Boulware currently serves as the vice president of people and culture supporting wire and cable manufacturing for Southwire Co. In this role, she is the strategic business partner to executive and senior leaders as they support 6,500 team members by recruiting, training, developing, and rewarding them to meet business objectives through continuous improvement. She is responsible for developing employees and culture leaders at 19 facilities to become strategic problem-solvers and business partners at a site level as they work to make Southwire the employer of choice.

Prior to her current role, she served in various roles at Georgia Pacific Corp.: operations business partner, workforce transformation leader, manufacturing recruiting leader, and a talent solutions manager for Koch Industries, parent company of Georgia Pacific. She spent 15 years in engineering and leadership roles at plants in the pulp and paper industry.

As a graduate of Auburn University, Boulware serves on the Auburn University Foundation Board of Directors and served on the Auburn Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. She is a member of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council and its executive committee, a member of the Auburn Chemical Engineering Alumni Council’s alumni relations committee, and a member of the Center for Inspiring Engineering Excellence Advisory Council. She also served many years on the Auburn Pulp & Paper Foundation Board of Directors as scholarship and recruitment chair. She established an Ever Auburn Scholarship in the college and is a supporter of 100+ Women Strong. In recognition of her support, she is a member of the college’s Ginn and EAGLE societies and the university’s Foy, Samford, and Petrie societies.

Maury Gaston / ’82 Mechanical Engineering

Maury Gaston earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1982. He recently retired as manager of marketing services for AMERICAN Cast Iron Pipe Company. Gaston is a third-generation Auburn graduate and a first-generation Auburn engineer. He came to Auburn from Sylacauga and spent a significant portion of his 42-year career with AMERICAN working in New York, Florida, California, and Texas before returning home to headquarters in Birmingham in 1997. His entire career with AMERICAN was in sales and marketing, where he enthusiastically promoted iron and steel pipe, engineering, and Auburn.

Gaston serves Auburn University in many capacities, including joining the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council in 2002 and serving as chair from 2013-16. He has served the waterworks industry as vice chair of the national standards committee for iron pipe, as chair of the Alabama Iron and Steel Council, and as a frequent author and presenter of papers at industry technical conferences. Maury has represented Auburn as a current director and past chair of the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. He is also currently serving as regent — which is the national president — of Sigma Nu Fraternity. In 2014, Maury was named as the Auburn University Department of Mechanical Engineering Alumnus of the Year.

Giving back, Maury and his family have established a scholarship endowment in the college, and he is a member of the college’s Ginn and EAGLE societies and the university’s Foy, Samford, and Petrie societies.

Chris Kramer / ’94 Civil Engineering

Chris Kramer earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1994 and currently serves as chief strategy officer for Brasfield & Gorrie. He has more than 30 years of construction experience and has served in operational and leadership roles across the organization. In 2013, Kramer was named chief innovation officer and established a group focused on innovation and continuous improvement across the organization and industry. Soon thereafter, he also became chief information officer and consolidated five separate technology-related departments into a unified group that has become a technology leader within the construction industry.

He has also been responsible for numerous company-wide strategic planning, improvement, and cultural change initiatives and had oversight of Brasfield & Gorrie’s virtual design and construction, lean, business process improvement, and offsite manufacturing departments prior to being named chief strategy officer in 2022.

As part of this construction-related work, he was responsible for numerous projects at Auburn University, the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium expansion, LSU’s Tiger Stadium expansion, and a wide range of industrial, commercial, and institutional projects across the Southeast. For his professional achievements, Kramer was named as the Auburn Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 2021.

Kramer has also served in leadership positions in church, civic, community, and professional organizations locally and nationally. As a dedicated supporter of his alma mater, Kramer has served as the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board. He and his wife, Mary, have also established an endowed scholarship in the college. For their support, the Kramers are members of the college’s Ginn and EAGLE societies and the university’s Foy, Samford, and Petrie societies.

Art Slotkin / ’68 Aerospace Engineering

Art Slotkin earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn in 1968, a master’s in flight structures from Columbia in 1969, and a master’s in history and sociology of technology and science from Georgia Tech in 2006. Slotkin retired as executive vice president of SAIC, where he was responsible for business units with nearly $800 million in revenue, managing marketing, sales, and delivery of commercial information technology outsourcing, systems integration, and consulting services globally.

He previously served in executive roles with Unisys, Capgemini, AT&T, and several start-up companies. In addition to his distinguished career, Slotkin served as the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council historian, where he has documented the history of the council and the college. In recent years, Slotkin has written and published more than a dozen books, including the history of the College of Engineering; College of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences; College of Agriculture; departments of aerospace, biosystems, and civil and environmental engineering; and of women and African Americans in engineering at Auburn. He currently has several books in development.

As a committed alumnus of Auburn, Slotkin has supported the departments of aerospace engineering and civil and environmental engineering, along with the dean’s discretionary fund. For his dedication, Art is a member of the college’s EAGLE Society and the university’s Foy Society.

Outstanding Young Auburn Engineer

Jordan Watkins / ’12 Civil Engineering

Jordan Watkins earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2012. Jordan currently serves as the CEO of the PTAC Companies, a holding company with various entities focused on design, construction, real estate development, and technology development. These companies include PTAC Engineering, EDGE Software, PTAC Ventures, Structure Parking Solutions, Tarragona Technologies, Total Foundation Solutions, Commercial Maintenance Group, RH Design Build, and Merit Building Systems. The mission of PTAC Companies is to positively impact its community through strategic investments in transformative real estate developments and partnerships that empower small businesses.

Watkins’ responsibilities at PTAC include strategic leadership and vision of all existing operating businesses within the portfolio to guide controlled growth for each business. PTAC is an ardent supporter of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Under Watkins’ leadership, the company named two spaces in the college, including the PTAC Consulting Engineers Study Space in the Brown-Kopel Center and the PTAC Consulting Engineers Office Suite in the Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory. In addition, Watkins was recently named to the Auburn University Civil Engineering Advisory Board.

Superior Service

Sushil Bhavnani / Professor Emeritus

Sushil Bhavnani earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University, his master’s in the same discipline from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, and his doctorate from Iowa State University. Bhavnani began his career at Auburn as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in 1987. He retired in 2024 after 37 years. During his time at Auburn, he served as an assistant and associate professor before being promoted to full professor. He also served as the undergraduate program officer and associate chair for mechanical engineering and carried the titles of Alumni Professor and the Henry Burt Chair and Professor.

For his work inside and outside of the classroom, he was recognized many times by the university and college for his commitment to his students and his research. During his time at Auburn, he was presented with the Leischuck Endowed Presidential Award, Walker Merit Award, Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Faculty Member three times, Walker Superior Award, SGA Faculty Member of the Year, Pumphrey Award, Birdsong Merit Award, and the Mortar Board Favorite Educator Award. He also was named Outstanding Faculty Advisor, Organization Advisor of the Year, Provost’s Fellow, AU Spirit of Sustainability Award winner, and Auburn Alumni Engineering Council Outstanding Senior Researcher Award.

In addition, Bhavnani was the inaugural advisor of the college’s IDEAS Program, where current Auburn Engineering undergraduate students work from campus in a secure location with companies such as Boeing on high-level projects of importance.

The Auburn Alumni Engineering Council was formed in 1966 as a group of Auburn Engineering alumni who work together to support the vision and goals of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. The council meets twice annually to assist and advise the college, and its members serve on a variety of committees geared to the mission and operation of the college. Council members are an active and valued component of the College of Engineering family. They demonstrate a continuing commitment to move the college to new levels of excellence and take its place among the nation’s premier engineering institutions. The council provides leadership and participation in areas such as academics, development, governmental affairs, and public relations.