Roger Williams University will bestow 1,199 degrees this week at two separate commencement ceremonies. The first, for the law school, will be held Friday afternoon and the second, for the baccalaureate degrees, on Saturday morning.

Joan Countryman, the former head of The Lincoln School, in Providence, will serve as the keynote speaker at the Saturday commencement, which begins at 10 a.m. on the university’s main athletic field. Countryman will be presented an honorary doctor of education degree.

Federico Hernandez Denton, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico will speak at the law school commencement, which begins at 1 p.m. Friday at the School of Law. He will receive an honorary law degree.

After leaving The Lincoln School in 2005, Countryman, a former Fulbright scholar, went on to serve as the interim head of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, a position she held before leading the Atlanta Girls’ School, in Georgia, for one year. She is a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater.

Also receiving honorary degrees at the Saturday commencement: Sen. Jack Reed will receive a doctor of public service degree; Ibrahim Arikan, a Turkish educator and entrepreneur, will receive a doctor of human letters degree; and Jarrold L. Lavine, chairman and CEO of the Freeman Group, a management and private investment firm, will receive a doctor of business management degree.

In addition to Denton, a 29-year veteran of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, the School of Law will bestow honorary degrees on Louise Durfee, a lawyer known for her efforts to protect Rhode Island’s environment and waterways; and Jacob Hagopian, senior U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.

The university expects to award degrees to 1,026 seniors, while the School of Law anticipates a graduating class of 173.

More information about the university commencement is available at www.rwu.edu/newsandevents/news/050109rwucommencement2009.htm

Information for the School of Law commencement can be found at law.rwu.edu/news/events/details.aspx?events_id=1046