Anthony DeSpirito, principal of Weatherly Area High School and Middle School, has announced the guest speaker at the 2017 Weatherly Area High School Commencement Exercise, which will take place on June 9.

The speaker will be Gretchen Leach, a 2003 graduate of Weatherly Area High SchoolIn 2006, she completed a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Southern California with a double major of international relations and political science.While at USC, she was in the Resident Honors Program and the Thematic Option Program. She also served as chairwoman of her student government organization.After graduating from USC, Leach went on to earn a Juris Doctor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2009. She is licensed to practice law in the State of California.Leach worked for the California State Department of Health Care Services for four years. She provided advice and counsel to California's Medicaid program, which provides health care to California's most impoverished individuals, during the expansion that occurred under the federal Affordable Care Act.She also represented the state in many actions against health care providers for overpayments, waste and fraud.In 2014, she left DHCS to work at a private law firm in Orange County, California, where she represents health care providers in a variety of health care proceedings, including medical staff peer review, licensing, regulatory matters, and litigation.Both of Leach's siblings, Kristin and Jeremy, graduated from Weatherly; and her mother, Katie Leach, teaches in the school district.