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By Stephanie Scott
ATLANTA — When Lydia Mitcham Meredith (M.P.P. ’13, Ph.D. ’25) crosses the stage this month to receive her Ph.D. in English at age 73, she expects to feel one thing above all else: gratitude.
What she calls her “final degree” is a testament to how education has shaped every chapter of her life and has become the tool she has used to help herself, her family and her community.
“Learning is in my DNA,” she said. “I don’t know how to live any other way.”
Meredith’s commitment to education began with her mother, Annie Mae, who earned her high school diploma while raising 10 children and went on to complete her college degree at age 64. That example inspired Meredith to pursue her own path in higher education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in management from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., before beginning her career in engineering and energy planning at U.S. Steel, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Southern Co.
Her life shifted into ministry and community development when she married a preacher and co-founded the outreach organization Beacon of Hope in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward. Drawing on her engineering mindset, management training and passion for service, she helped build programs in early education, after-school support, affordable housing and family development.
“I used everything I had ever learned,” she said. “Every degree, every skill. Nothing was wasted.”
Meredith’s life took a challenging turn when, after 13 years of marriage, her husband came out as gay and, later, one of her sons did as well. She and her husband spent years trying to make their marriage work for the sake of their children and the ministry they built, but they eventually divorced.
Committed to understanding and healing, she returned to school at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta for a Master of Arts in Christian Education, studying the intersection of faith and sexuality. She later completed a Master of Public Policy from Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in 2013, strengthening her knowledge of nonprofit management and public service.
Her research during this period informed her memoir, “The Gay Preacher’s Wife,” which explores how faith, love and understanding can grow out of life’s most unexpected challenges.
For years after publishing her book, Meredith continued leading Beacon of Hope and serving families in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward. After more than two decades of dedicated work, the physical demands led her to retire.
After regaining her health, she woke up one morning in 2017 with a thought she couldn’t ignore: She wasn’t finished learning. She learned about the GSU 62 program, which provides a tuition waiver to Georgia State students age 62 and older. She decided to return and pursue a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in rhetoric and composition.
“Rhetoric ties everything in my life together,” she explained. “It helps us understand truth, listen to one another, defend ourselves and move people to action. I needed rhetorical grounding for the work I do, and for the justice I believe in.”
Her research on LGBTQ+ stigma and religious discourse merges her lived experience with her academic training, creating scholarship that is deeply personal and socially urgent.
During her time at Georgia State, Meredith taught first-year composition and business writing in the College of Arts & Sciences, and she describes those years as transformative. Her classroom became a space for shared storytelling that strengthened her dissertation and broadened her understanding of the world.
“I learn from my students every day,” she said. “Their stories have shaped me as a scholar and a person.”
Meredith also found powerful mentorship among the English faculty. They modeled scholarly rigor while giving her freedom to pursue questions rooted in her own history and advocacy. Her dissertation committee played a particularly influential role in helping her refine her research and develop her scholarly voice.
“Georgia State challenged me intellectually and supported me personally,” she said. “The faculty helped me understand how my life experience could inform meaningful scholarship.”
After graduation, Meredith plans to stay at Georgia State as an adjunct professor and write a follow-up book to her memoir. She hopes to use her training in rhetoric — both in the classroom and to educate broader audiences — to promote inclusion, support marginalized communities and illuminate the connections among language, faith and justice.
“My purpose is to use my voice and my writing to help people,” she said. “That has always been at the center of my life. Georgia State refined my agency to use my voice for whatever comes next.”
Photo Credit: Raven Schley