West Virginia University is readying for a presidential visit of sorts on Friday, March 26but don’t look for George W. Bush, John Kerry or the Secret Service detail.

Hollywood actress Kim Webster, a 1994 WVU theater graduate who plays on NBC ’s Emmy-winning political drama,The West Wingis coming back to her alma mater to talk about AIDS research and assist the university during its capital campaign celebration.

Webster’s visit coincides with WVU ’s observances during the week of March 29 of international Health Action AIDS week, a global call to awareness of the sexually transmitted illness that’s life-threatening and sometimes fatal.

The New Jersey-born actress playsGinger,an earnest, hard-working communications aide in the top-rated TV show starring Martin Sheen. In the show, Ginger answers to White House communications directorsTobyandSam,played by Richard Schiff and Rob Lowe, respectively.

In real life, Webster has taken charge and made it her mission to simply make the world aware of AIDS , and what it does to families. She’s a national spokeswoman for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and grew up with an adopted brother and sister who have both been touched by AIDS and HIV , the virus that causes it.

Her adopted sister’s birth mother died of full-blown AIDS while in jail, and Webster’s sibling was born HIV -positive. Miraculously, though, she began testing negative for the virus when she was 18 months old.

Her brother who was adopted later did develop full-blown AIDS , and was only expected to live to the age of 7, if he was lucky. He turns 15 his next birthday.

The children were abandoned as infants in a New Jersey hospital, Webster said.

They needed to be loved and cared for,Webster said.My parents took on the job.

That her siblings are surviving and thriving is a success, she said, that isn’t just attributed to doctors and drugs. Webster feels it also comes down to that courage and compassion shown by her parents early on.

They willingly accepted their roles, Webster said, in the face of a daunting, devastating illness that kills 8,200 people a day across the world.

My parents are absolute angels,the actress said.

Webster, in the meantime, is eager to leave Tinseltown for the Land of the Blue and Gold. On Saturday, she’s scheduled to meet with members of the WVU Foundation, where she’ll assist in the capital campaign celebration coordinated by the university’s private fund-raising arm. She’ll also have a sit-down with theater students in the College of Creative Arts.

She also plans to call on her sisters at Alpha Xi Delta, she said, the sorority she belonged to during her student days here. Her official visit at the sorority also marks the start of Greek Week at WVU .

It’s really special for me to be coming back to Morgantown,she said.I loved my time at WVU . Best years of my life.

Webster’s visit is co-sponsored by WVU ’s Student Chapter of Physicians for Human Rights and the University Health Service.