An international immigration expert launches the fifth lecture series Sept. 26 presented by the Baltimore County League of Women Voters and sponsored by McDaniel College.

Lectures will be held 6-7:15 p.m. in the Sheppard Pratt Conference Center in Towson, Md. Light refreshments will be served 5:15-6 p.m.

The Monday evening series features six speakers, beginning with Dr. Demetrios Papademetriou on Sept. 26. Papademetriou is the president of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington-based think tank dedicated exclusively to the study of international migration. MPI is the successor to the International Migration Policy Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He is also the co-founder and Chair Emeritus of "Metropolis: An International Forum for Research and Policy on Migration and Cities." Metropolis seeks to stimulate inter-disciplinary and cross-national policy research and thinking among teams of researchers, senior policymakers and leaders of the non-governmental sector in more than three dozen states.

Dr. Papademetriou has taught at the University of Maryland, Duke University, the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research (Political Science), and the American University (as a scholar-in-residence). He also advises senior government and political party officials on migration matters in nearly 20 countries and consults with numerous foundations and research organizations globally.

Dr. John D. Gearhart, professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University and outspoken advocate on stem-cell research, follows on Oct. 31.

Other speakers in the series will be Dr. Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, University of Maryland; Dr. Robert L. Caret, president of Towson University; Robert W. Stanhope, chief naturalist, Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks; and Kenneth C. Montague, Jr., secretary of Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.

For more information, please contact the Baltimore County League of Women Voters at 410-377-8046, or e-mail LWVBaltimore@verizon.net.