Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, will launch graduation season at the University of California, Davis, on Friday with a commencement address at the School of Law, where more than 200 students will receive law degrees.

Twelve other commencement ceremonies will follow between now and June 16, during which the university will recognize some 8,000 graduates with undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in fields ranging from nursing and veterinary medicine to humanities and agricultural sciences.

For the first time this year, degrees will also be awarded to graduates of the university's new master's of public accountancy program.

Live and on-demand webcasts of each of the commencements will be available.

Pelosi will speak at the School of Law commencement at 4 p.m. at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Guest speakers at other commencement ceremonies include:

• Lawrence S.C. Czer, medical director of heart transplantation at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, will speak at the School of Medicine commencement on Saturday, June 1. The institute is the largest center in the United States for adult heart transplants.
• Francis F. Lee, chairman of the board of Synaptics, a developer of touch-screen technology based in Santa Clara, will speak at the commencement for the College of Engineering on Friday, June 14.
• Carl Schramm, one of the world's leading experts on entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Management, will speak to new MBAs, their families and friends at the school's ceremony on Saturday, June 15. For more on Schramm, see separate release.

More information about commencement speakers, is available through the  commencement website.

Following is a complete list of commencement dates, times and locations:

• May 17 — School of Law at 4 p.m. at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts; 35 Master of Laws and 198 Juris Doctor degrees.
• June 1 — School of Medicine at 10 a.m. at the Mondavi Center; 99 Doctor of Medicine, 16 Master of Health Informatics and 24 Master of Public Health degrees.
• June 12 — School of Education at 4 p.m. at the Mondavi Center; 23 doctoral degrees, 120 master's degrees and completion of studies for 145 teaching credentials.
• June 13 — Graduate Studies at 4 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion; 1,178 degrees including 476 doctorates.
• June 14 — College of Biological Sciences at 9 a.m. in the ARC Pavilion.
• June 14 — School of Veterinary Medicine at 10 a.m. at the Mondavi Center; 134 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees, nine Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine degrees and 40 certificates recognizing completion of residency.
• June 14 — College of Engineering at 3 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion.
• June 15 — College of Letters and Science at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion.
• June 15 — Graduate School of Management at 10 a.m. at the Mondavi Center; 165 Master of Business Administration degrees and the first 29 Master of Professional Accountancy degrees.
• June 16 — College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion.

Estimates of undergraduate degrees — awarded by the colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — will be available in June. In 2011-12, UC Davis conferred 8,732 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees.

One of the most comprehensive universities in the U.S., UC Davis offers interdisciplinary graduate studies and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.