Wells College trustee Gail Leftwich Kitch, executive director of MacNeil/Lehrer's "By the People," will be Wells College's 2008 commencement speaker.

This year's commencement ceremony will take place at the Aurora Inn at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 24. Wells expects to confer degrees on more than 90 students this spring.

"By the People" is a MacNeil/Lehrer initiative that uses public television to encourage and support informed dialogue on policy issues.

Kitch was formerly president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils following service as director of Cambridge Forum in Massachusetts and principal of Strategic Business Consultants, an international business consulting organization. She had also served as associate director of the Program on South Africa at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Lisa Marsh Ryerson, Wells president, described Kitch as a passionate and articulate advocate of liberal arts education and of Wells.

"We are deeply honored to welcome Gail Kitch as our 2008 commencement speaker," she said.

Kitch holds a B.A. cum laude rom Bryn Mawr Dollege and a University of Chicago law degree. She practiced law with large Washington D.C. and Boston law firms and chaired the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. She was also a Radcliffe College Public Policy Fellow.

Kitch sits on the executive committee of the Women's Foreign Policy Group, is a board member of the American Bar Association Museum of Law in Chicago,serves on the National advisory Group to The State of the USA, Inc., and is on the Advisory Commission to the Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

She joined the Wells College Board of Trustees in 1999 and is now secretary of the board on the executive committee. She also chairs the enrollment committee and is on student affairs and academic affairs committees.