List of Barnard College people

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The following is a list of notable individuals associated with Barnard College through attendance as a student, service as a member of the faculty or staff, or award of the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

Notable alumnae

Academics and scientists

• Natalie Angier (1978), author, science journalist for the New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
• Jacqueline Barton (1974), Caltech chemist and MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant" winner
• Hazel Bishop (1929), chemist and inventor of innovative cosmetics
• Marian Chertow (1977), academic specializing in environmental resource management
• Frances Gardiner Davenport, historian
• Carol Dweck (1967), professor of psychology at Stanford University
• Firth Haring Fabend (1959), novelist and historian
• Jessica Garretson Finch (1893), author, suffragette, founding President of Finch College
• Ellen V. Futter (1971), President of Barnard College and the American Museum of Natural History
• Lynn Garafola (1968), dance historian
• Virginia Gildersleeve (1899), Dean of Barnard College and delegate to the charter conference of the United Nations in 1945
• Rebecca Goldstein (1972), philosopher, biographer, and novelist
• Monica Green medieval historian
• Maxine Greene (1938), educator, philosopher, activist; past president of the American Educational Research Association
• Patricia Greenspan (1966), professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park
• Evelyn Byrd Harrison (1941), classical scholar, archaeologist, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Evelyn Hu (1969), Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Harvard University
• Karla Jay (1968), pioneer of lesbian and gay studies
• Mirra Komarovsky (1926), sociologist; pioneer in the sociology of gender
• Mabel Lang (1939), archeologist and professor at Bryn Mawr College
• Janna Levin (1988), cosmologist
• Rita Gunther McGrath (1981), business book author; Professor at Columbia Business School
• Eileen McNamara (1974), professor of journalism at Brandeis University; formerly Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the The Boston Globe
• Margaret Mead (1923), anthropologist
• Elsie Clews Parsons (1896), first woman elected President of the American Anthropological Association
• Helen Perlstein Pollard (1967), archaeologist, ethnologist, Mesoamericanist scholar, professor of anthropology at MSU
• Helen Ranney (1941), first woman to lead a university department of medicine in the U.S., be president of the Association of American Physicians, or serve as a Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration
• Ida Rolf (1916), biochemist, founder of Rolfing Structural Integration
• Louise Rosenblatt (1920s), influential literary theorist and educator
• Anna Schwartz (1933), economist
• Vivian Sobchack (1961), cultural critic
• Maya Soetoro-Ng (1993), educator; half-sister of President Barack Obama
• Amy Sueyoshi (1993), historian and academic
• Merryl Tisch (1977), educator, Chancellor, New York State Board of Regents; wife of James S. Tisch, heir to the Loews Corporation
• Beatrice Warde (1920s), calligrapher, librarian, researcher on type matters and influence upon 20th century typography
• Irene J. Winter (1960), American art historian

Actresses and performers

• Sissy Biggers (1979), host of Ready.. Set... Cook! 1996-2000
• Clara Bryant (2007), actress
• Catherine de Castelbajac (1975), model and fashion journalist
• Jill Eikenberry (1968), actress
• Denise Faye (1996), director, choreographer, actress
• Greta Gerwig (2006), actress
• Jaime Gleicher (2010), reality star
• Lauren Graham (1988), actress, played Lorelai Gilmore on TV show Gilmore Girls
• Sprague Grayden (2000s), actress, played Judith Montgomery on Joan of Arcadia
• Alexandra Guarnaschelli (1991), celebrity chef at Butter Restaurant in New York City, television personality
• Shari Lewis (dropped out - 1950s), ventriloquist, puppeteer, television show host
• Peggy McCay (1949), actress
• Julie Mond (2000s), actress
• Cynthia Nixon (1988), actress, played Miranda Hobbes on TV show Sex and the City
• Chelsea Peretti (2000), actress, writer for TV show Parks and Recreation
• Lee Remick (dropped out - 1953), actress
• Ariane Rinehart (2015), actress, played Liesl on The Sound of Music Live!
• Joan Rivers (1954), star comedian, TV host
• Christy Carlson Romano (2000s), actress
• Frankie Shaw (2000s), actress
• Vinessa Shaw (dropped out - 1990s), actress, 40 Days and 40 Nights
• Sasha Soreff (1994), choreographer
• Zuzanna Szadkowski (2001), actress, played Dorota on TV show Gossip Girl
• Sophia Takal (2007), actress and director
• Twyla Tharp (1963), choreographer, dancer
• Sarah Thompson (1990s), television actress
• Donna Vivino (2000), actress and singer
• Jane Wyatt (1932), actress

Architects

• Norma Merrick Sklarek (1950), first black woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States
• Christine Wang (1989), architect, curator and artist.

Artists

• Sarah Charlesworth (1969), photographer and conceptual artist
• Maud Morgan, modern artist
• Josephine Paddock, painter
• Jane Teller, sculptor
• Mierle Laderman Ukeles, performance artist

Athletes

• Stacey Borgman (1993), member of crew team for the United States at the 2004 Olympics
• Gloria Callen (1946), swimmer
• Abby Marshall (2014), chess player; won 2009 Denker Tournament of High School Champions
• Erinn Smart (2001), fencer for the United States at the 2004 Olympics silver medalist in team foil fencing at the Beijing 2008 Olympics
• Robin Wagner (1980), figure-skating coach

Businesswomen

• Susan Mary Alsop, Washingtonian socialite; wife of journalist Joseph Alsop
• Erica Bell (2007), co-founder of e-commerce website Hukkster
• Patricia Duff, founder of NGO The Common Good, ex-wife of Ronald Perelman
• Eileen Ford (1943), co-founder of Ford Models, one of the world's oldest and most influential modeling agencies
• Anjli Jain (2003), executive director of CampusEAI Consortium
• Liz Neumark (1977), founder and CEO of New York catering company Great Performances.
• Sheila Nevins (1960), president of HBO documentary films; winner of 27 Primetime Emmy Awards and 3 Peabody Awards
• Joan Whitney Payson, co-founder and majority of owner of the New York Mets
• Azita Raji (graduated 1983), investment banker, nominated as U.S. ambassador to Sweden
• Helen Rogers Reid (1903), newspaper publisher, president of the New York Herald Tribune
• Alexis Stewart (1987), daughter of Martha Stewart; TV host and radio personality
• Martha Stewart (1964), business magnate, entrepreneur, homemaking advocate
• Elizabeth Wiatt (1967)

Mita Nambiar (1996), business anilest, USG

Journalists

• Natalie Angier (1978), author and science writer for the New York Times; won the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 1991
• Jami Bernard (1978), film critic for The New York Post and The New York Daily News, founder of Barncat Publishing Inc.; author whose books include a memoir of surviving breast cancer
• Fatima Bhutto, social activist, writer, and niece of Benazir Bhutto
• Suzanne Bilello (1977), author who with Rose Marie Arce (Barnard class of 1986) was a member of a Newsday team in 1992 that shared the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting
• Katherine Boo (1988), recipient of Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2000 and the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant"
• Mona Charen, nationally syndicated columnist, political analyst, and author
• Liz Clarke (1983), journalist for The Washington Post, co-host of The Tony Kornheiser Show
• Herawati Diah (1941), Indonesian journalist
• Laura Flanders (1984), correspondent for Air America and host of "GritTV"
• Sylvana Foa (1967), first female news director of an American television network; first Spokeswoman for Secretary General of the United Nations
• Alexis Gelber (1974), former president of the Overseas Press Club
• Piri Halasz, correspondant Time Magazine and art critic
• Maria Hinojosa (1984), correspondent for CNN; NOW on PBS; host of NPR's Latino USA
• Cathy Horyn, fashion journalist, New York Times fashion critic
• Freda Kirchwey (1915), journalist, editor and publisher of The Nation
• Lily Koppel (2003), writer, New York Times, author of The Red Leather Diary
• Alex Kuczynski (1990), style reporter for The New York Times
• Judith Miller (1969), former correspondent for New York Times who reported on the story of Iraq's alleged WMD program; Aspen Strategy Group member
• Nonnie Moore (c. 1946), fashion editor at Mademoiselle, Harper's Bazaar and GQ.
• Mary Ellis Peltz, music critic, poet, and first chief editor of Opera News
• Anna Quindlen (1974), author and columnist for Newsweek who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992
• Atoosa Rubenstein (1993), founder of CosmoGirl and editor-in-chief of Seventeen; youngest ever editor of a teen magazine
• Susan Stamberg (1959), special correspondent, NPR's Morning Edition
• Jeannette Walls, gossip columnist for MSNBC; author of The Glass Castle
• Lis Wiehl (1983), legal analyst for Fox News
• Ellen Willis (1960s), essayist and pop music critic

Musicians, singers, and composers

• Laurie Anderson (1969), musician, NASA's first artist-in-residence
• Louise Post, lead singer and guitarist of alternative rock band Veruca Salt
• Roxanne Seeman (1975), songwriter
• Jeanine Tesori (1983), Broadway composer
• Suzanne Vega (1981), singer-songwriter, "Luka", "Tom's Diner"

Playwrights, screenwriters, and directors

• Helen Deutsch (1927), screenwriter, Lili, National Velvet, King Solomon's Mines
• Delia Ephron (1966), author, screenwriter, playwright, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, You've Got Mail
• Gina Gionfriddo (1991), playwright
• Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (1966), screenwriter
• Kait Kerrigan (2003), playwright
• Annie Leonard (1986), activist and director, The Story of Stuff
• Ntozake Shange (1970), playwright
• Linda Yellen (1969), Emmy Award-winning director, Northern Lights ; producer, Playing for Time

Political, social and judicial figures

• Ann Aldrich (1948), judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
• Grace Lee Boggs (1935), author and political activist
• Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum (1952), United States District Court judge
• Ronnie Eldridge (1952), activist, businesswoman, politician, and television host
• Paula Franzese (1980), professor of real property law at Seton Hall Law School
• Helen Gahagan (1924), United States House of Representatives Congresswoman from California
• Helene D. Gayle, M.D., M.P.H. (1970), president and CEO of CARE USA and chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
• Nancy Gertner (1967), Judge on United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• Cheryl Halpern, chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Patricia McMahon Hawkins (attended), United States Ambassador to Togo from 2008 to 2011
• Susan Herman (1968), President of the American Civil Liberties Union; Professor at Brooklyn Law School
• Jessie Wallace Hughan (1898, Phi Beta Kappa), United States Senate candidate, author, teacher, founder of Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity
• Miriam Hughes, United States Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia
• Judith Kaye (1958), first woman in highest position in state judiciary, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Claire R. Kelly (1987), judge on the United States Court of International Trade
• Jeane Kirkpatrick (1948), first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
• Wilma B. Liebman (1971), Chair, National Labor Relations Board
• Hope Portocarrero (1950s), first lady of Nicaragua, the wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle
• Paula Reimers (1969), Rabbi, political activist for Palestinian rights, gender equity, and religious freedom
• Jessica Stern (1985), American policy consultant on terrorism who served on the United States National Security Council under Bill Clinton
• Anna Diggs Taylor (1954), United States District Court judge
• Kang Tongbi (1907), daughter of Kang Youwei and political activist
• Constance H. Williams (1966), Pennsylvania state senator from 2001 to 2009; daughter of Leon Hess, founder of the Hess Corporation

Religious figures

• Sara Hurwitz (1999), first woman to serve in the Orthodox Jewish clergy

Spies

• Marion Davis Berdecio (1943), Accused Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, comrade of Coplon and Wovschin
• Judith Coplon (1943), Soviet spy in U.S. Justice Department whose convictions were overturned on technicalities
• Juliet Stuart Poyntz (1907), involved in intelligence activities for the Soviet OGPU; founding member of the Communist Party USA
• Flora Wovschin (1943), Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, stepdaughter of Columbia professor/Soviet spy Enos Wicher

Writers

• Léonie Adams (1923), poet
• Joan Abelove (1966), writer
• Mary Antin (1902), author of the immigrant experience
• Charlotte Armstrong (1925), writer
• Jami Bernard (1978), writer and film critic
• Fatima Bhutto (2004), Pakistani poet and writer
• Ann Brashares (1989), author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
• Sasha Cagen (1996), writer
• Hortense Calisher (1932), writer
• Diana Chang (1949), pioneering Asian-American novelist
• Cassandra Clare (1995), author of The Mortal Instruments
• Rachel Cohn (1989), author of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Gingerbread
• Nadine Jolie Courtney (2002), Bravo TV personality Newlyweds: The First Year and author of Beauty Confidential and Confessions of a Beauty Addict
• Elise Cowen (1956), poet of the Beat Generation
• Galaxy Craze (1993), novelist
• Edwidge Danticat (1990), writer
• Thulani Davis (1970), novelist
• Tory Dent (1981), poet and HIV/AIDS activist
• Babette Deutsch (1917), author, poet, translator and critic
• Francine du Plessix Gray (1952), Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer
• Hallie Ephron (1969), novelist
• Cristina García (1983), author of Dreaming in Cuban
• Mary Gordon (1971), writer
• Indrani Aikath Gyaltsen (1970s), writer
• Monique Raphel High (1969), novelist
• Patricia Highsmith (1940), author of The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Anne Hollander (1952) historian of fashion
• Helen Hoyt (1900s), poet
• Zora Neale Hurston (1928), Harlem Renaissance writer
• Elizabeth Janeway (1935), author and critic
• Joyce Johnson (1955), writer
• June Jordan (1955), writer and activist
• Erica Jong (1963), writer
• Alexa Junge (1984), writer for The West Wing and Friends
• Joan Kahn (late 1930s), mystery editor and anthologist; also novelist and children's writer
• Jhumpa Lahiri (1989), Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies
• Jane Leavy (1974), sports biographer
• Faith McNulty (1920s, attended one year), writer
• Daphne Merkin (1975), literary critic, essayist, and novelist
• Alice Duer Miller (1899), writer and advisory editor of The New Yorker
• Diana Muir (1975), writer and historian
• Alana Newhouse (1997), writer and editor of Tablet Magazine
• Alice Notley (1967), poet
• Sigrid Nunez (1972), novelist
• Edie Parker (1940s), author; first wife of Jack Kerouac
• Helena Percas de Ponseti (1940), writer, essayist, scholar, and professor
• Chelsea Peretti (2000), writer and comedian
• Marisha Pessl (2000), author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
• Belva Plain (1939), writer
• Ariana Reines (2002), poet
• Lionel Shriver(1978), novelist and 2005 Orange Prize winner
• Dean Spade (1997), writer, activist, lawyer, Assistant Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law
• Joan Vollmer (1943), Beat poet, partner of William S. Burroughs
• Julie Zeilinger (2015), blogger and feminist writer

Fictional alumnae

• In the 2005 Sigrid Nunez novel The Last of Her Kind, heroines Georgette George and Ann Drayton meet in 1968 as freshmen roommates at Barnard.
• In the television series Mad Men, the character Rachel Menken is a Barnard graduate.
• In the 2015 film Mistress America, the lead character Tracy Fishko is a freshman at Barnard.

Notable faculty

• Nadia Abu El Haj, anthropologist
• Robert Antoni, Commonwealth Writers Prize–winning author
• Randall Balmer, author and historian of American religion
• Dave Bayer, mathematician; actor and math consultant for the film A Beautiful Mind; one of few holders of an Erdős-Bacon number
• Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
• Frank Brady, leading figure in international chess
• Harriet Brooks, physicist
• Demetrios James Caraley, Editor of the Political Science Quarterly; President of the Academy of Political Science
• John Cheever (1956–1957), Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and short story writer
• Dennis Dalton (1969–2008), political scientist; renowned nonviolence proponent; scholar of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
• Michael X. Delli Carpini (1987–2003), political scientist, Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
• Mortimer Lamson Earle, classicist
• Theodor Gaster
• Virginia Gildersleeve
• Katie Glasner, former Twyla Tharp dancer
• Mary Gordon, writer
• Elizabeth Hardwick, writer; co-founder of The New York Review of Books; wife of Robert Lowell
• Ken Hechler, U.S. Congressman from West Virginia
• Charles Knapp, Ph.D., philologist and classical scholar
• Janna Levin, physicist
• Perry Mehrling, economic historian
• Gabriela Mistral, first Latin American Nobel Prize winner for Literature
• Samuel Alfred Mitchell, astronomer
• Raymond Moley (1923–1933), proponent and later critic of the New Deal
• Frederick Neuhouser, philosopher
• Sigrid Nunez, novelist
• Elaine Pagels (1970–1982), scholar of early and gnostic Christianity
• Alan F. Segal, ancient Judaism and origins of Christianity; author of Life after Death, and Paul the Convert
• Edmund Ware Sinnott, botanist
• Dolph Sweet, actor
• Elie Wiesel (1997–1999), Nobel Peace Prize–winning writer and activist

Recipients of the Medal of Distinction

The Barnard Medal of Distinction is the College's highest honor.

1977

• Joan Mondale

1978

• Samuel R. Milbank
• Richard Rodgers
• Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger '14

1979

• Adelyn Dohme Breeskin
• Helen Gahagan Douglas '24
• Eleanor Thomas Elliott '48
• William Am Marstellar
• Toni Morrison
• Francis T.P. Plimpton

1980

• Dorothy Height
• Julius S. Held
• Mary Dublin Keyserling '3
• Margaret Mahler
• Alan Pifer
• Henriette H. Swope '25

1981

• Robert L. Hoguet
• Elizabeth Janeway '35
• Beverly Sills

1982

• Carol Bellamy
• Raymond J. Saulnier
• Twyla Tharp '63

1983

• Mario Cuomo
• Vernon Jordan, Jr.
• Mirra Komarovsky '26

1984

• Arthur Altschul
• Annette Kar Baxter '47 (posthumous)
• Joseph G. Brennan
• Anna Hill Johnstone '34

1985

• Marian Wright Edelman
• Sidney Dillon Ripley
• Elizabeth Man Sarcka '17

1986

• A. Bartlett Giamatti
• Frances Lehman Loeb
• Helen M. Ranney '41

1987

• Judith Kaye '58
• Sally Falk Moore '43
• Rev. James Parks Morton
• Ellen Stewart

1988

• Augusta Souza Kappner '66
• Ntozake Shange '70
• Maxine Singer

1989

• Joan Kaplan Davidson
• Eugene Lang
• Bernice Segal (posthumous)
• Lottie L. Taylor-Jones

1990

• Jacqueline Barton '74
• Robert L. Bernstein
• Jean Blackwell Hutson '35
• Julie V. Marsteller '69

1991

• Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum '50
• Tisa Chang '63
• Mamphele Ramphele delivered the 2002 Commencement address

1992

• Ingrith Johnson Deyrup-Olsen '40
• Fred W. Friendly
• Millicent Carey McIntosh
• Frank Stella

1993

• Arthur Ashe (posthumous)
• Elizabeth B. Davis '41
• Helene Lois Kaplan '53
• Bette Bao Lord
• Cyrus Vance

1994

• Walter Cronkite
• Ellen V. Futter '71
• Barbara Stoler Miller '62 (posthumous)
• Arthur Mitchell
• Sheila E. Widnall

1995

• Madeleine Albright
• Rosemary Park Anastos
• Derek Bok
• Sissela Bok

1996

• Rita R. Colwell
• Kitty Carlisle Hart
• Maya Lin
• Dame Anne Warburton

1997

• Sarah Brady
• Merce Cunningham
• Charlayne Hunter-Gault
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

1998

• Mary L. Good
• Joan Ganz Cooney
• David Aaron Kessler

1999

• Zoe Caldwell
• Abby Joseph Cohen
• Esther Dyson
• William T. Golden

2000

• Doris Kearns Goodwin delivered the 2000 Commencement address
• Hanna Holborn Gray
• Annie Leibovitz
• Kathie L. Olson

2001

• Morris Dees
• Susan Hendrickson
• Maxine Greene '38
• Bernice Johnson Reagon delivered the 2001 Commencement address

• Barbara Novak '50
• Alice Rivlin
• Harold E. Varmus

2003

• Susan Band Horwitz
• Judith Miller '69 delivered the Commencement address
• Martha Nussbaum

2004

• Sylvia Earle
• Louise Glück

2005

• Carla D. Hayden
• Amartya Sen

2006

• Linda Greenhouse
• Audra McDonald
• Francine du Plessix Gray '52

2007

• Joan Didion
• Nicholas D. Kristof
• Mary Patterson McPherson
• Muriel Petioni
• Anna Deavere Smith

2008

• Thelma C. Davidson Adair
• Michael Bloomberg delivered the 2008 Commencement address
• Billie Jean King
• David Remnick
• Judith Shapiro

2009

• Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the 2009 Commencement address
• Kay Murray
• Indra Nooyi
• Irene J. Winter '60

2010

• Thelma Golden
• Olympia J. Snowe
• Meryl Streep delivered the 2010 Commencement address
• Shirley M. Tilghman

2011

• Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, delivered the 2011 Commencement address
• Sylvia Rhone
• Roberta Guaspari
• Jenny Holzer

2012

• Barack Obama, President of the United States, delivered the 2012 Commencement address
• Sally Chapman, Barnard Professor of Chemistry
• Helene D. Gayle '76, President and CEO of CARE, USA
• Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry

2013

• Leymah Gbowee, recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, delivered the 2013 Commencement address
• Jimmie Briggs, founder of the Man Up campaign
• Elizabeth Diller, architect and designer of the High Line
• Lena Dunham, creator, director, writer and star of the HBO series Girls

2014

• Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation
• Mahzarin Banaji, social psychologist and professor of social ethics at Harvard University
• Ursula Burns, chair and chief executive officer of Xerox
• Patti Smith, acclaimed musician, poet, and artist

2015

• Samantha Power, academic and journalist
• Simi Linton, expert on disability and the arts
• Nadia Lopez, principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy
• Diana Nyad, long-distance swimmer and author

External links

• Past Speakers and Medalists