HANOVER— The founder and chief executive officer of Teach for America is scheduled to deliver the main address at Dartmouth College’s commencement ceremony Sunday morning.

Wendy Kopp founded the nonprofit organization, which enlists top college graduates to teach in under-resourced urban and public schools, as her undergraduate senior thesis at Princeton in 1989.

She has spent the last two decades building and running the organization, which today has more than 9,000 corps members teaching in 43 regions across the country.

“It’s a tremendous honor to address the Class of 2012. Dartmouth students have always had a strong commitment to public service, and many have gone on to become some of Teach for America’s most outstanding corps members and alumni,” Kopp said in a Dartmouth press release. “Conan O’Brien is a tough act to follow, but I’ll do my best,” she added about last year’s commencement speaker.

Kopp is also to receive an honorary degree at the event.

Also receiving honorary degrees are South African musician, cultural activist and anthropologist Johnny Clegg; chemist, chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, and Dartmouth alumna and trustee Marye Anne Fox; Greenland human rights leader and politician Aqqaluk Lynge; and philanthropist, arts patron, and Dartmouth alumnus and trustee Steven Roth.

Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim is to deliver the valedictory address to the graduates. The valedictorian, to be announced the week of commencement, is also to speak at the event.

About 1,000 bachelor’s degrees and approximately 600 master’s and doctoral degrees in the arts and sciences from the college’s three professional schools — Geisel School of Medicine, Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business — are expected to be awarded Sunday.

The academic procession to the Green begins at 9:30 a.m. Visitors are advised to be in their seats by that time. The commencement ceremony begins at 10 a.m.

- - - - - - - -

Meghan Pierce may be reached at mpierce@newstote.com.mpierce@newstote.com