This year marks the twenty-sixth occasion of the Mary Frances Early Lecture Series and the 64th anniversary of Mary Frances Early’s 1962 graduation as the first African American to earn a graduate degree from UGA.
Each year, speakers are invited to deliver a lecture that honors Ms. Early’s quiet determination and dignity in her work to ensure that the state’s flagship university became an institution of higher learning for all the people of Georgia.
Dr. Adrienne Madison will be delivering the address, “A Legacy in Bloom: Rooted, Resilient, and Reaching.”
Dr. Adrienne Madison, a native of Fairfield, Alabama, is currently a research biomedical engineer in the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory in Fort Rucker, Alabama. She is a 2025 recipient of the UGA Graduate School’s Alumni of Distinction.
In her current role as a Principal Investigator and Subject Matter Expert, she oversees research in injury biomechanics that focuses on sustaining mission performance and preventing Service Member spinal musculoskeletal disorders/injury while wearing personal protective equipment, such as helmets, in air and ground military operational environments. This work has led to the development and dissemination of helmet system guidelines to reduce the risk of mission performance decrement in ground soldier populations; this guidance previously existed only for aviators.
Madison’s doctoral research focused on the development of novel applications using medical imaging and computational modeling to simulate and predict the biomechanical behavior of muscle, bones, tissues, and organ systems in animals and humans. More recently, she contributed a chapter on the human health effects of hand-transmitted and whole-body vibration published to the “Ernsting’s Aviation and Space Medicine” textbook (6th edition, 2025) used internationally by aerospace medicine residents.
For more than 20 years, Madison has mentored Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students from elementary to collegiate levels. Furthermore, she uses her professional distinction to promote health and wellness awareness within her local community.
Madison was recognized as a UGA Amazing Student in 2013 and as a member of the 2019 class of UGA’s 40 Under 40. Recently, she was named a 2023 Community Trailblazer by the Birmingham Metro Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a member of the 2024 Cohort of 40 Under 40 by the South Eastern Region of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Madison earned a Ph.D. (‘13) in biological and agricultural engineering from the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering.
The 26th Annual Mary Frances Early Lecture will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, February 9, 2026.
The event is free and open to the public and will take place in Mahler Hall at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
The Mary Frances Early Lecture, also designated as a Signature Lecture, is sponsored by the Graduate School, Graduate and Professional Scholars (GAPS), the Mary Frances Early College of Education, the Office of Academic and Community Engagement, and the Office of the President, and is coordinated by the Office of the Provost.
