FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 18, 1999

CONTACT:

Mary Ann Hill (781) 283-2373 mhill@wellesley.edu

BROADCAST JOURNALIST LYNN SHERR
TO DELIVER COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
AT HER ALMA MATER ON FRIDAY, MAY 28

WELLESLEY, Mass.-- Journalist and author Lynn Sherr will return to her alma mater on Friday, May 28 to address the Class of 1999 at Wellesley College's 121st Commencement exercises.

An award-winning correspondent with ABC News' 20/20 since 1986, Sherr has covered a range of stories, focusing on invesigative reports, national politics, and women's issues. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1963 with a B.A. in Greek and now serves on its Board of Trustees. She received Wellesley's Alumnae Achievement Award in 1988. (More detailed biography can be found at the end of this release.)

COMMENCEMENT DAY SCHEDULE

[To view a schedule of pre-Commencement events click here.]

Commencement occurs, rain or shine, in a huge tent on Severance Green near the center of the campus. All media are required to check in at the press area in the tent and are welcome to cover all of the day's events as outlined below. Photographers will be escorted to the stage area. A map and directions can be found here.

9:30 a.m.	Students assemble on Severance Hill for class photo
9:45 a.m.	Students assemble near Academic Quad Faculty assemble outside Founders Hall on Jewett Road
10:30 a.m.	Procession begins down Jewett Road, onto Green -- enters at back of tent Seniors go first, stop outside tent and form two lines, through which the faculty process (and are applauded by the students) Trustees follow faculty President Diana Chapman Walsh and Lynn Sherr follow trustees Then students enter tent and take their seats

Commencement Ceremony (usually runs 10:45 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.):

Invocation by Victor Kazanjian, Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life

President Walsh, welcome

Student speaker Colby Lenz '99

Announcement of retirements, faculty award winners

Lynn Sherr delivers commencement address (beginning at approx. 11:15 a.m.)

President Walsh, Charge to the Class of 1999

Conferring of degrees

Everyone sings "America the Beautiful," written by Katharine Lee Bates, Wellesley Class of 1880

(12:30 - 2:30) Reception on the nearby Chapel Lawn after the ceremonies.

An award-winning correspondent with ABC News' 20/20 since 1986, Sherr has covered a range of stories, focusing on invesigative reports, national politics, and women's issues. She also reported regularly on NASA Space Shuttle missions. She provides analysis of all national elections, and has served as a floor reporter at Presidential nominating conventions.

Before joining 20/20, Sherr was a national correspondent for ABC News, which she joined in 1977. Earlier in her career, she was an on-air correspondent for WCBS-TV and WNET in New York and WETA in Washington, DC. Prior to that, she worked for Conde Nast Publications and The Associated Press.

Sherr has received numerous honors for her journalism, including a Peabody for her hour-long special on a treatment for anorexia. Other awards, including an Emmy, were presented by American Women in Radio and Television, Planned Parenthood, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Women's Political Caucus.

Sherr's most recent book, Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes, was published in 1997. She is also the author of Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and co-author of Susan B. Anthony Slept Here: A Guide to American Women's Landmarks.

Lynn Sherr graduated from Wellesley College in 1963 with a B.A. in Greek and now serves on its Board of Trustees. She received Wellesley's Alumnae Achievement Award in 1988.

To view a schedule of pre-Commencement events click here.