Commencement Speakers Announced: Lesley, Maryville, Mass Liberal Arts, Saint Peter's, San Jose State, U of California at Berkeley, U of North Texas at Dallas, Widener, Williams

The following colleges have announced their commencement speakers for spring 2016:

• Lesley University: Charles M. Payne, the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago; Molly Baldwin, the founder and CEO of Roca Inc., a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that disrupts “the cycle of incarceration and poverty by helping young people transform their lives”; Richard Blanco, the poet; and Nick Cave, the performance artist.
• Maryville College, in Tennessee: Many-Bears Grinder, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services.
• Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts: James C. Clemmer, a business executive and former interim president of the college.
• Saint Peter's University: France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation.
• San Jose State University: Harry Edwards, the sociologist and civil rights activist.
• University of California at Berkeley: Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.org.
• University of North Texas at Dallas: Seema Yasmin, reporter at The Dallas Morning News and professor of public health at the University of Texas at Dallas.
• Widener University: Marty Moss-Coane, host and executive producer of WHYY’s Radio Times; and Michael Smerconish, host of his own radio show on SiriusXM and of CNN’s Smerconish.
• Williams College: Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.