Lexow is a 1990 graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., where she was a four-year starter at third base. Lexow was named team MVP and All Midwest Conference in her junior and senior seasons. She was also a two-year starter at point guard for the Prairie Fire basketball team.

Lexow has also been an assistant basketball coach at Wellesley College for the past three seasons while attending graduate school at Harvard University. Lexow received her A.M. in history from Harvard in 1992 and will receive her Ph.D. in history of American civilization later this year.

Lexow was also a member of Downers Grove's prestigious DOLLS softball program, as a player from 1980 to 1990 and as a coach from 1986 to 1991. As one of the first programs sponsored by the American Softball Association (ASA), DOLLS sends Illinois teams to compete on a national level against other ASA-sponsored teams. The DOLLS program, whose players range in age from seven to twenty-one, has won several national championships, including four with Lexow as either a player or a coach.

"We are pleased to have Gwen Lexow join our staff," said Bates director of athletics Suzanne Coffey. "Her softball experience and her performance in higher education will both serve Bates College well."