Amy R. Rigdon ’05, ’08 JD serves on the Stetson University Board of Trustees and is a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm where she specializes in investment funds.

Katya Kudryavtseva, PhD, is an associate professor of Art History and curator of the Stetson Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection at the Hand Art Center. She is the winner of the 2024 McEniry Award For Excellence In Teaching, Stetson’s most prestigious faculty honor.

On Wednesday, Aug. 21, Rigdon and Kudryavtseva will share their messages with students, faculty, staff and guests at Stetson Convocation at 11 a.m. in the Edmunds Center. Rigdon will deliver the keynote speech and Kudryavtseva will address attendees as the most recent McEniry Award recipient. 

All students, faculty and staff are asked to participate in Convocation, which signifies the formal opening of the 2024-25 academic year. Cultural Credit will be available for students.

As the Alumni Keynote Speaker, Rigdon is a J. Ollie Edmunds Distinguished Scholar and served as captain of the Women’s Varsity Crew at Stetson and Editor-in-Chief of Stetson Law Review. She is a past president of the Stetson Law Alumni Association and in addition to serving on the Board of Trustees, Amy currently serves on the Board of Overseers of Stetson College of Law. She is a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington, D.C. 

Kudryavtseva’s research specializes in twentieth-century art, and focuses on the intersection of art history, politics, art institutions and business by exploring the role these play in the development of the canon of modern and contemporary art. As a curator, she has overseen numerous exhibitions that illuminate the complex dynamics that shape artistic movements and cultural narratives. 

Special to the regular program this year is a five-minute video that introduces the alumni-led Soul of Stetson movement, which traces its origins to remembering the 1979 avalanche that killed three Stetson students. The story is captured in the Stetson-made Remembering Innsbruck documentary started last year, at the same time alumni also began a grassroots fundraising effort to reconstruct Hulley Tower, which had been destroyed by hurricanes in 2004, as both a memorial and a long-lasting physical symbol of the Soul of Stetson as the “best within us.”

After the ceremony, students, faculty, staff and guests are invited to a complimentary Community Lunch in the Lynn Dining Commons and The Warren and Barbara Carr Stetson Room. Students will be asked to show their student IDs to enter. 

At 1:30 p.m., a groundbreaking is scheduled for the new 305-bed residence hall, just east of the Carlton Union Building. Schmancy Pops will be offered to mark the occasion.