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Alston Parker Watt To Address Opening Convocation (Watch Live)

Alston Parker Watt, executive director of The Williams Family Foundation of Georgia and a 1989 graduate of Washington and Lee University, will address W&L’s 2013 Fall Convocation at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5. She has titled her convocation address “Make It Count.”

Convocation, held on the Front Campus in front of Lee Chapel, marks the official opening of the University’s 265th academic year and the 165th year of the School of Law. Classes begin in the School of Law on Sept. 2, while undergraduate classes begin on Sept. 4.

Watt was the first undergraduate woman to serve on the Washington and Lee Board of Trustees, from 2003 to 2011. As a member of the first coeducational class at W&L, she served on the student Executive Committee, the Student Activities Board and the Student Recruitment Committee. She won the 1989 Ring-tum Phi Award for outstanding leadership and dedication to the University. A two-sport letter winner in swimming and diving and in lacrosse, Watt captained the lacrosse team from 1987 to 1989.

In addition to her bachelor’s degree in economics from W&L, Watt holds a master’s in health science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Watt has been active in national and international public service, working with CARE-USA in Haiti and Bangladesh. In 1994, she directed community development for the North Luangwa Conservation Project in Zambia.

She has served as a trustee of the Bryn Mawr School, in Baltimore, is a founding board member of Hands on Thomas County, in Georgia, and is a founding committee member of the Georgia Grantmakers Alliance.

The Williams Family Foundation supports programs that focus on children, preservation and conservation, with a geographic focus in southwest Georgia.

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