100 Notable alumni of
Barnard College
Updated:
Barnard College is 224th in the world, 98th in North America, and 95th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Barnard College sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Lauren Graham
- Occupations
- novelistfilm producerfilm actortelevision actoractor
- Biography
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Lauren Graham is an American actress and author. She is best known as Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood (2010–15). She also appeared in the films Sweet November (2001), Bad Santa (2003), The Pacifier (2005), Because I Said So (2007), Evan Almighty (2007), and Max (2015). In 2013, Graham published her debut novel with Ballantine Books, Someday, Someday, Maybe. In 2016, Graham reprised her role on a Gilmore Girls Netflix revival miniseries A Year in the Life and published a memoir, Talking as Fast as I Can.
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Martha Stewart
- Occupations
- modelwritertelevision producerinterior designerblogger
- Biography
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Martha Helen Stewart is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising and e-commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, was the publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine and hosted two syndicated television programs: Martha Stewart Living, which ran from 1993 to 2004, and The Martha Stewart Show, which ran from 2005 to 2012.
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Greta Gerwig
- Occupations
- playwrightfilm screenwriterfilm producerfilm actorfilm director
- Biography
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Greta Celeste Gerwig is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. Initially known for working on various mumblecore films, such as Baghead (2008) and Yeast (2008), in which she became an important figure in the movement. Since then she has expanded from acting in and co-writing independent films to directing major studio films. Gerwig was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2018.
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Kesha
- Occupations
- composersinger-songwriterdesigneractorsongwriter
- Biography
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Kesha Rose Sebert, formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2009 she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round".
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Chelsea Peretti
- Occupations
- television actorfilm directoractorvoice actorstand-up comedian
- Biography
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Chelsea Peretti is an American comedian, actress, and writer. She portrayed Gina Linetti in the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and has written for various TV series, including Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live and Kroll Show.
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Cynthia Nixon
- Occupations
- actorpoetfilm actorstage actorslam poet
- Biography
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Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, activist, and theatre director. During her career, she received various accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Grammy Award, making her one of the few actresses to have won three of the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT). She has also been nominated for six Golden Globe Awards. Nixon may be best known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004) and films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), as well as the television show And Just Like That... (2021–2025).
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Joan Rivers
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 1954
- Occupations
- directorfilm actorfilm producerfilm directorvoice actor
- Biography
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Joan Alexandra Molinsky, known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona that was heavily self-deprecating and acerbic, especially towards celebrities and politicians, delivered in her signature New York accent. She is considered a pioneer of women in comedy. She received an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award, as well as nomination for a Tony Award.
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Vinessa Shaw
- Occupations
- film directormodeltelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Vinessa Elizabeth Shaw is an American film actress and model. She began her career as a child actress, making her feature film debut in the slasher film Home Sweet Home (1981). She had her breakout role in Disney's Halloween comedy-fantasy film Hocus Pocus (1993). Shaw also appeared in Ladybugs (1992) and L.A. Without a Map (1998).
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Lee Remick
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorcharacter actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Lee Ann Remick was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in Wait Until Dark (1966) in addition to earning seven Emmy Award nominations.
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Patricia Highsmith
- Occupations
- writercomics writernovelistscreenwriter
- Biography
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Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories in a career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing was influenced by existentialist literature and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene.
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Cassandra Clare
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwriterwriterchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
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Judith Lewis, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.
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Margaret Mead
- Occupations
- curatorfilm directorwriteranthropologistpoet
- Biography
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Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker, who appeared frequently in the mass media during the mid-twentieth century.
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Suzanne Vega
- Occupations
- singerplaywrightguitaristwritersinger-songwriter
- Biography
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Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American singer-songwriter of folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s, she released four singles that entered the Top 40 on the UK singles chart, "Marlene on the Wall", "Left of Center", "Luka" and "No Cheap Thrill".
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Frankie Shaw
- Occupations
- film directortelevision actortelevision produceractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Rachel Frances Shaw is an American actress, writer and director. She is best known for playing Bridgette Bird on the Showtime series SMILF, based on the 2015 short film of the same title, which she wrote, directed and starred in. Shaw is also known for playing Mary Jo Cacciatore on the 2010–2011 Spike TV series Blue Mountain State, and her recurring role as Shayla Nico in the first season of the USA Network television series Mr. Robot.
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Christy Carlson Romano
- Occupations
- actorsingervoice actor
- Biography
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Christy Carlson Romano is an American actress, podcaster, and singer. On the Disney Channel, she played Ren Stevens on Even Stevens and voiced the titular character from Kim Possible.
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Zora Neale Hurston
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- 1925-1928 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in anthropology
- Occupations
- folkloristhistoriancivil rights advocatewriteranthropologist
- Biography
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Zora Neale Hurston was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays. Some of her work, namely Tell My Horse (1937), explored ethnomusicological methods of study long before there were formal boundaries for the discipline, especially not boundaries that included the respectful study of communities of color. Hurston's unique background and exceptional approach to anthropology laid key foundations for the growth of ethnography, literature, and Africana Studies.
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Maya Soetoro-Ng
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 1993
- Occupations
- teacher
- Biography
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Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng is an Indonesian-American academic, who is a faculty specialist at the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, based in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is also a consultant for the Obama Foundation, working to develop the Asia-Pacific Leaders Program. Soetoro-Ng is the maternal half-sister of Barack Obama, a former President of the United States.
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Laurie Anderson
- Occupations
- composerchoreographerpoetdirectorperformance artist
- Biography
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Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work encompasses performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York City during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. She achieved unexpected commercial success when her song "O Superman" reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981.
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Park Yeon-mi
- Occupations
- human rights defenderwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector, author, and American conservative activist, described as "one of the most famous North Korean defectors in the world".
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Kelly McCreary
- Occupations
- voice actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Kelly J. McCreary is an American actress, best known for her role on the ABC drama series Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Maggie Pierce, the half-sister of series protagonist Meredith Grey. She joined the series as a guest at the end of the tenth season, becoming a series regular in the eleventh season. She has reprised her role on the spin-off series Station 19.
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Jhumpa Lahiri
- Occupations
- novelistuniversity teacherscreenwriteractortranslator
- Biography
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Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri is a British-American author known for her short stories, novels, and essays in English and, more recently, in Italian.
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Alexis Stewart
- Occupations
- television presenterradio personalityjournalist
- Biography
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Alexis Gilbert Stewart is an American television and radio host presenter. She is the only child of Martha Stewart and her ex-husband Andrew Stewart. She was the co-host of Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on Sirius Satellite Radio, and Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on the Hallmark Channel alongside co-host Jennifer Hutt.
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Jeannette Walls
- Occupations
- opinion journalistwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Jeannette Walls is an American author and journalist widely known as former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com and author of The Glass Castle, a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood. Published in 2005, it had been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 421 weeks as of June 3, 2018. She is a 2006 recipient of the Alex Award and Christopher Award.
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Jane Wyatt
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Jane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress. She starred in a number of Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, but is likely best known for her role as homemaker and mother Margaret Anderson on the CBS and NBC television comedy series Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science-fiction television series Star Trek. Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award–winner.
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Virginia Hall
- Occupations
- intelligence analystSOE agentspy
- Biography
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Virginia Hall Goillot DSC, Croix de Guerre, MBE, code named Marie and Diane, was an American who worked with the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in France during World War II.
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Lionel Shriver
- Occupations
- novelistwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Lionel Shriver is an American author and journalist. Her novel We Need to Talk About Kevin won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005.
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Erica Jong
- Occupations
- writerpoetnovelistwomen's rights activist
- Biography
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Erica Jong is an American novelist, satirist, and poet known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. The Washington Post said in 2013 that it had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, while by 2022, The New York Times reported that worldwide sales of the book had increased to over 37 million copies.
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Ottessa Moshfegh
- Occupations
- novelistscreenwriterwriter
- Biography
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Ottessa Charlotte Moshfegh is an American author and novelist. Her debut novel, Eileen (2015), won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a fiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Moshfegh's subsequent novels include My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Death in Her Hands, and Lapvona.
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Carol S. Dweck
- Years
- 1946-.. (age 80)
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1967 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in psychology
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychologist
- Biography
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Carol Susan Dweck is an American psychologist. She holds the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professorship of Psychology at Stanford University. Dweck is known for her work on motivation and mindset. She was on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Harvard, and Columbia before joining the Stanford University faculty in 2004. She was named an Association for Psychological Science (APS) James McKeen Cattell Fellow in 2013, an APS Mentor Awardee in 2019, and an APS William James Fellow in 2020, and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2012.
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Molly Jong-Fast
- Years
- 1978-.. (age 48)
- Occupations
- novelistpolitical punditwritermemoiristpodcaster
- Biography
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Molly Jong-Fast is an American journalist, novelist, and political commentator.
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Sprague Grayden
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Sprague Grayden is an American actress. She played schoolteacher Heather Lisinski in the television drama Jericho, Karen Kawalski in John Doe, first daughter Olivia Taylor in the television thriller 24, and Kristi Rey in the films Paranormal Activity 2 and 3.
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Fatima Bhutto
- Occupations
- poetwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani writer and columnist. She is the daughter of politician Murtaza Bhutto, and grand-daughter of former Pakistani prime minister and president Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Born in Kabul, she was raised in Syria and Karachi, and received her bachelor's degree from Barnard College in New York City, followed by a master's degree from the SOAS, University of London.
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Judith Miller
- Occupations
- writerwar correspondentjournalist
- Biography
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Judith Miller is an American journalist and commentator who is known for writing about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, but her writings were later discovered to have been based on fabricated intelligence. She worked in the Washington bureau of The New York Times before joining Fox News in 2008.
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Twyla Tharp
- Occupations
- film directorballet dancerdancerwriterchoreographer
- Biography
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Twyla Tharp is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1965 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance, which merged with American Ballet Theatre in 1988. She regrouped the company in 1991. Her work often uses classical, jazz, and contemporary pop music.
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Isra Hirsi
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 2021
- Occupations
- climate activistenvironmentalist
- Biography
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Isra Hirsi is an American environmental activist. She co-founded and served as the co-executive director of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike. In 2020, she was named in the Fortune's 40 Under 40 Government and Politics list. She is the daughter of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar.
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Mozhan Marnò
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorscreenwriterwriterfilm actor
- Biography
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Mozhan Navabi is an American film and television actress. She is known for her roles in The Blacklist and House of Cards and played Soraya Manutchehri in The Stoning of Soraya M.. She was previously known as Mozhan Marnò, but returned to her given last name, Navabi, in 2023.
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Louise Post
- Occupations
- composersinger-songwriterguitaristsinger
- Biography
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Louise Lightner Post is an American musician. She is best known for being a vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Veruca Salt, which she co-founded with Nina Gordon in 1992.
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Sarah Thompson
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Sarah Thompson is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Eve in Angel (2003–2004) and as Rose in 7th Heaven (2005–2006).
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Zuzanna Szadkowski
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actor
- Biography
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Zuzanna Szadkowski is a Polish-American actress known for her role as Dorota Kishlovsky on CW teen drama series Gossip Girl. Szadkowski also appeared on The Knick, Girls, Search Party, The Good Wife, The Sopranos, and Guiding Light. She made her New York Stage debut in Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore in which she appeared in a record-breaking five all-star casts.
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Lis Wiehl
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Lis Wiehl is a New York Times bestselling American author of fiction and nonfiction books, and a legal analyst. She is the author of twenty books, including, most recently, A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen―America's Most Damaging Russian Spy, published by Pegasus Books.
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Lydia Davis
- Occupations
- university teachernovelistwriterlinguisttranslator
- Biography
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Lydia Davis is an American short story writer, novelist, essayist, and translator from French and other languages, who often writes very short stories. Davis has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Swann's Way by Marcel Proust and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
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Jeane Kirkpatrick
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitical scientistuniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a longtime Democrat who became a neoconservative and switched to the Republican Party in 1985. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 presidential campaign, she became the first woman to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
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Peggy McCay
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Margaret Ann "Peggy" McCay was an American actress whose career began in 1949, and includes theatre, television, soap operas, and feature films. McCay may be best known for originating the roles of Vanessa Dale on the CBS soap opera Love of Life (a role she played from 1951 to 1955), and Caroline Brady, which she played from 1983 to 2016 on NBC's Days of Our Lives.
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Kathleen Neal Cleaver
- Occupations
- activistlawyerjournalistprofessor
- Biography
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Kathleen Neal Cleaver is an American law professor and activist known for her involvement with the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party.
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Ntozake Shange
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- playwrightactorwriterpoetnovelist
- Biography
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Ntozake Shange was an American playwright and poet. As a Black feminist, she addressed issues relating to race and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for her Obie Award–winning play, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (1975). She also penned novels including Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982), Liliane (1994), and Betsey Brown (1985), about an African-American girl run away from home.
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Jamie Babbit
- Occupations
- screenwriterdirectorfilm directorwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Jamie Merill Babbit is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), The Quiet (2005), and Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007). She has also directed episodes of such television series as Russian Doll, Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, United States of Tara, Looking, Nip/Tuck, The L Word, Silicon Valley, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Orville, Only Murders in the Building, and A League of Their Own.
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Helen Gahagan Douglas
- Occupations
- stage actoractorfilm actorpolitician
- Biography
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Helen Gahagan Douglas was an American actress and politician.
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Rebecca Goldstein
- Occupations
- biographernovelistwriterclassical scholarphilosopher
- Biography
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Rebecca Goldstein is an American philosopher and novelist. She has written ten books, both fiction and nonfiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University, and is sometimes grouped with novelists such as Richard Powers and Alan Lightman, who create fiction that is knowledgeable of, and sympathetic toward, science.
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Petra Costa
- Occupations
- actorscreenwriterfilm director
- Biography
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Ana Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and narrator, and a co-founder of the production company Busca Vida Filmes. Petra has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2018. She is internationally recognized for her hybrid, essayistic approach, in which intimate themes such as grief, memory, trauma, and identity intertwine with historical events and contemporary political tensions. Her films have screened in more than 40 countries and received recognition at festivals such as Sundance, Venice, IDFA, Locarno, and CPH:DOX, among others. In 2020, her documentary film The Edge of Democracy was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards and won a Peabody Award.
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Eileen Ford
- Occupations
- model agent
- Biography
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Eileen Cecile Ford was an American modeling agency executive. Along with her husband Gerard "Jerry" Ford, she co-founded Ford Models in 1946, which emerged as one of the earliest and most successful modeling agencies in the mid and late-20th century.
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Grace Lee Boggs
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1935 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in philosophy
- Occupations
- civil rights advocateeditorsocial activistwriterfeminist
- Biography
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Grace Lee Boggs was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s she and her husband, James Boggs, took their own political direction, turning their focus to civil rights and Black Liberation, Asian American, and other social justice movements. By 1998 she had written four books, including an autobiography. In 2011, still active at the age of 95, she wrote a fifth book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, with Scott Kurashige, published by the University of California Press. She is regarded as a key figure in the Asian American, Black Power, and Civil Rights movements.
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Janna Levin
- Occupations
- mathematiciantheoretical physicistphysicist
- Biography
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Janna J. Levin is an American theoretical cosmologist and a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in astronomy and physics with a concentration in philosophy at Barnard College in 1988 and a PhD in theoretical physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. Much of her work deals with looking for evidence to support the proposal that our universe might be finite in size due to its having a nontrivial topology. Other work includes black holes and chaos theory. She joined the faculty at Barnard College in January 2004 and is currently the Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
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Anna Quindlen
- Occupations
- columnistnovelistwriterjournalistchildren's writer
- Biography
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Anna Marie Quindlen is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist.
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Edwidge Danticat
- Occupations
- novelistuniversity teachershort story writerwriterchildren's writer
- Biography
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Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written or edited several books and has been the recipient of many awards and honors. Her work has dealt with themes of national identity, mother-daughter relationships, and diasporic politics. In 2023, she was named the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.
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Becca Balint
- Occupations
- teachercolumnistpolitician
- Biography
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Rebecca A. Balint is an American politician who is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large congressional district. A progressive Democrat, she served as a member of the Vermont Senate from Windham County from 2015 to 2023, as majority leader from 2017 to 2021, and as president pro tempore from 2021 to 2023.
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Sana Amanat
- Occupations
- executive producercomics writercomics editoreditor
- Biography
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Sana Amanat is an American comic book editor and an executive of production and development at Marvel Studios, having formerly been the Director of Content and Character Development at Marvel Comics. She has worked on comics such as Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, and Ms. Marvel. Amanat is known for co-creating Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, the first Muslim-American superhero with a solo Marvel Comics series.
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Aline MacMahon
- Occupations
- film actoractorstage actor
- Biography
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Aline Laveen MacMahon was an American actress. Her Broadway stage career began with a small role in Edgar Selwyn's The Mirage in 1920. She made her screen debut in 1931 and worked extensively in film, theater, and television until her retirement in 1975. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Dragon Seed (1944).
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Kellie Gerardi
- Occupations
- customer service workerastronautmedia professionalship sponsor
- Biography
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Kellie Gerardi is an American social media influencer, defense professional, and commercial astronaut who is known for a sub-orbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic and her candidacy for the Mars One reality television show.
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Sigrid Nunez
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
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Sigrid Nunez is an American author and writer who is best known for her novels. Her seventh novel, The Friend, won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. In 2025, Nunez was named as the recipient of a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in the fiction category.
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Jeanine Tesori
- Occupations
- composerlyricist
- Biography
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Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals, six Tony Award nominations, and five Grammy Award nominations for Best Musical Theater Album. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home (shared with Lisa Kron), making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo (shared with David Lindsay-Abaire). She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.
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Rana Foroohar
- Occupations
- journalistfinancial analyst
- Biography
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Rana Aylin Foroohar is an American author, business columnist and an associate editor at the Financial Times. She is also CNN's global economic analyst.
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Mona Charen
- Occupations
- writerjournalistpolitical scientistcolumnist
- Biography
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Mona Charen Parker is an American conservative columnist, journalist, and political commentator. Charen has written four books, and is an outspoken critic of the Trump administration.
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Sophia Takal
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Sophia Takal is an American actress, writer and director, perhaps best known for her work in independent features such as All the Light in the Sky, Supporting Characters and Gabi on the Roof in July. Filmmaker magazine named Takal one of the "25 New Faces of Film" in 2011. She directed and co-wrote the 2019 remake of the 1974 horror film Black Christmas.
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Susan Stamberg
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1959 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in English literature
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Susan Phoebe Stamberg was an American radio journalist. She was co-host of NPR's flagship program All Things Considered from 1972 to 1986. In that role Stamberg was the first female host of a national news broadcast. She was considered one of NPR's "Founding Mothers" along with Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer, and Cokie Roberts. She worked for NPR in a variety of roles, including as a special correspondent, until her retirement in 2025.
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Maria Hinojosa
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Maria de Lourdes Hinojosa Ojeda is a Mexican-American journalist. She is the anchor and executive producer of Latino USA, a syndicated public radio show devoted to Latino issues. She is also the founder, president and CEO of Futuro Media Group, which produces the show. In 2022, Hinojosa won a Pulitzer Prize.
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Hope Portocarrero
- Occupations
- socialite
- Biography
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Hope Portocarrero Debayle, also known as Madame Somoza and Hope Somoza Baldocchi later in life, was an American socialite and, beginning in 1967, the First Lady of Nicaragua as the wife of president Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In 1968, she was named to the International Best Dressed List. She was the mother of Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero and four other children.
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Joan Whitney Payson
- Occupations
- philanthropistsocialiteentrepreneurart collectorbusinessperson
- Biography
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Joan Whitney Payson was an American heiress, businesswoman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and art collector, and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She co-founded, and was the majority owner of, Major League Baseball's New York Mets baseball franchise, making her the first woman to own a major league team in North America without inheriting it.
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Kristen Roupenian
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 2003 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in psychology and English
- Occupations
- screenwritershort story writerwriter
- Biography
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Kristen Roupenian is an American writer best known for her 2017 short story "Cat Person" and her 2019 short story collection You Know You Want This.
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Sheila Nevins
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1960 graduated with bachelor's degree in English
- Occupations
- film producertelevision producerfilm director
- Biography
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Sheila Nevins is an American television producer and former head of MTV Documentary Films division of MTV Entertainment Studios. Previously, Nevins was the president of HBO Documentary Films, where she produced over 1,000 documentary films. She has worked on productions that have been recognized with 35 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, 42 Peabody Awards, and 26 Academy Awards. Nevins has won 31 individual Primetime Emmy Awards, more than any other person. She is also a member of the board of directors for the Peabody Awards.
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Audrey Strauss
- Born in
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United States - Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Audrey Strauss is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from June 20, 2020, to October 10, 2021. Previously the deputy U.S. Attorney, Strauss became the acting U.S. Attorney after the previous U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, was fired by President Donald Trump at the request of Attorney General William Barr. On December 22, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, effective January 16, 2021, and pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), unanimously appointed Strauss as U.S. Attorney for an indeterminate term.
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Leora Dana
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actor
- Biography
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Leora Dana was an American film, stage and television actress from New York City. Dana appeared in numerous productions across film television and theatre including The Madwoman of Chaillot, Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot and The Asphalt Jungle (TV series). She won several awards across her career including the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising female. Dana died in 1983.
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Maria Semple
- Occupations
- writernovelisttelevision producerscreenwriter
- Biography
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Maria Keogh Semple is an American novelist and screenwriter. She is the author of This One Is Mine (2008), Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012), and Today Will Be Different (2016). Her television credits include Beverly Hills, 90210, Mad About You, Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development, Suddenly Susan, and Ellen. She is a 2013 recipient of the Alex Awards.
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Anna Schwartz
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistwriter
- Biography
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Anna Jacobson Schwartz was an American economist who worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York City and a writer for The New York Times. Paul Krugman has said that Schwartz is "one of the world's greatest monetary scholars."
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Ellen Willis
- Occupations
- music criticjournalistessayistwomen's rights activist
- Biography
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Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist, feminist, and pop music critic. A 2014 collection of her essays, The Essential Ellen Willis, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
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Ann Brashares
- Occupations
- children's writernovelistwriter
- Biography
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Ann Brashares is an American young adult novelist. She is best known as the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
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Azita Raji
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- diplomatinvestment banker
- Biography
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Azita Raji was an Iranian-born American diplomat, banker, and philanthropist. She was nominated by President Barack Obama in October 2014 to serve as the United States ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden, and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate in February 2016. She presented her credentials to King Carl XVI Gustaf on March 15, 2016, and completed her tour of duty on January 20, 2017.
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Lauren Tarshis
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writer
- Biography
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Lauren Tarshis is an American author of children's books, with several series of fiction, non-fiction and historical fiction works found in thousands of libraries and translated into several languages.
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Liz Moore
- Years
- 1983-.. (age 43)
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Liz Moore is an American novelist, screenwriter, and producer. She is a Professor of English at Temple University where she directs the MFA program in Creative Writing. After a brief time as a musician in New York City, which inspired her first novel, Moore shifted her focus to writing. She received the 2015 Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome, and her 2012 novel Heft was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her novel Long Bright River was adapted into a miniseries for Peacock.
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Katherine Boo
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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Katherine J. "Kate" Boo is an American investigative journalist who has documented the lives of people in poverty. She has received the MacArthur Fellowship (2002), the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012), and her work earned the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for The Washington Post. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 2003. Her book Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity won nonfiction prizes from PEN, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, the New York Public Library, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in addition to the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
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Suki Kim
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 1992
- Occupations
- teacherwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Suki Kim is a Korean American journalist and writer. She is the author of two books: the award-winning novel The Interpreter and a book of investigative journalism, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite. Kim is the only writer ever to have lived undercover in North Korea to conduct immersive journalism. Kim is currently a contributing editor at The New Republic.
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Polly Trottenberg
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Polly Ellen Trottenberg is dean of New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She was previously an American government official who served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation under Pete Buttigieg from 2021 to 2025, and as the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration from June 2023 to October 2023. She previously served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2014 to 2020.
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Agnes E. Meyer
- Occupations
- patron of the artsactivistpolitical activistphilanthropistart collector
- Biography
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Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer was an American journalist, philanthropist, civil rights activist, and art patron. Throughout her life, Meyer was engaged with intellectuals, artists, and writers from around the world. Meyer's marriage to the financier Eugene Meyer, son of Marc Eugene Meyer, provided her with wealth and status that enabled her to influence national policy, such as social welfare programs. Meyer lobbied for the creation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and for the U.S. government to provide federal aid to states for education. President Lyndon Johnson credited Meyer for building public support for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which for the first time directed federal assistance towards school districts that served children from low-income families. She advocated for equal employment and educational opportunities, regardless of race. Meyer's investigative journalism showed the inequities of racial segregation in schools in the Washington metropolitan area.
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Merryl Tisch
- Biography
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Merryl H. Tisch is currently the Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees, and the former Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents. She is married to James S. Tisch, an heir to the Loews Corporation. In November 2015, she stepped down from her role after nearly 20 years on the board.
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Alexis Sablone
- Occupations
- skateboarderarchitectartist
- Biography
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Alexis Sablone is a goofy-footed American professional skateboarder, who ranked 12th in the world as of July 2021. She has competed in every X Games competition since 2009, the World Skateboarding Championship, and skated on the Dew Tour. Sablone competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, placing 4th in the women's street final. In addition to being a professional skateboarder, Sablone has a master's degree in architecture from MIT. She currently resides in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
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Hallie Ephron
- Occupations
- journalistnovelist
- Biography
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Hallie Elizabeth Ephron is an American novelist, book reviewer, journalist, and writing teacher. She is the author of mystery and suspense novels. Her novels Never Tell a Lie, There Was an Old Woman, Come and Find Me, and Night Night, Sleep Tight were finalists for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. In 2011, Never Tell a Lie was made into a Lifetime television movie entitled And Baby Will Fall, starring Anastasia Griffith, Brendan Fehr, and Clea DuVall.
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Dean Spade
- Years
- 1977-.. (age 49)
- Occupations
- juristlawyerwriteruniversity teacherLGBTQ rights activist
- Biography
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Dean Spade is an American lawyer, transgender activist, writer, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. Since graduating from UCLA School of Law in 2001, Spade has organized a number of activist projects such as the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit providing free legal services to genderqueer marginalized groups in New York City. Spade entered academia as the 2009–2010 Haywood Burns Chair at CUNY School of Law, followed by his role as the Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law School and Harvard Law School. Throughout his career, Spade has written numerous articles, books, papers, and zines, and has also directed a documentary titled Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!.
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Laura Flanders
- Occupations
- journalistradio personality
- Biography
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Laura Flanders is an English broadcast journalist living in the United States who presents the weekly, long-form interview show The Laura Flanders Show. Flanders has described herself as a "lefty person".
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Sadie Dupuis
- Occupations
- writerpoetguitaristmusician
- Biography
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Sarah Elizabeth "Sadie" Dupuis is an American musician who is the guitarist, lead vocalist and lyricist for the band Speedy Ortiz. She has also released two solo albums, Slugger and Haunted Painting, under the name Sad13. Dupuis has published two books of poetry. A portrait of her was featured on the August 22, 2022 cover of The New Yorker. In October 2023, Rolling Stone included Dupuis on its 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list.
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Mary Harriman Rumsey
- Occupations
- activist
- Biography
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Mary Harriman Rumsey was an American social activist and government official. She was the founder of The Junior League for the Promotion of Settlement Movements, later known as the Junior League of the City of New York of the Association of Junior Leagues International Inc, and served as Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration. Mary was the daughter of railroad magnate E.H. Harriman and sister to W. Averell Harriman, former New York State Governor and United States Diplomat. In 2015 she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
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Nancy Gernter
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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Nancy Gertner is an American lawyer and jurist who was a United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1994 until retiring in 2011. She is now a professor of practice at Harvard Law School.
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Annie Leonard
- Occupations
- activistscreenwriterfilm director
- Biography
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Annie Marie Leonard is an American proponent of sustainability and a critic of consumerism. She created the animated film The Story of Stuff (2007), which describes the life cycle of material goods. In 2014, she became the executive director of Greenpeace USA.
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Loretta Mester
- Occupations
- bankereconomistbusinessperson
- Biography
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Loretta Jean Mester was president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
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Irma Brandeis
- Occupations
- writerpoetliterary criticuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Irma Brandeis was an American scholar of Dante Alighieri. Her work The Ladder of Vision was acclaimed as a breakthrough in Dantean studies upon its publication in the 1960s.
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Rachel Cohn
- Occupations
- writerscience fiction writerchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
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Rachel Cohn is an American young adult fiction writer. Her first book, Gingerbread, was published in 2002. Since then she has gone on to write many other successful YA and younger children's books, and has collaborated on six books with the author David Levithan.
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Nancy Dupree
- Occupations
- archaeologistanthropologisthistorian
- Biography
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Nancy Hatch Dupree was an American historian whose work primarily focused on the history of modern Afghanistan. She was the director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University and author of five books that she compiled while studying the history of Afghanistan from 1962 until the late 1970s, writing about tourism and history of Bamyan, Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and so on. She was fondly called the "grandmother of Afghanistan", having spent much of her life there or with Afghans abroad.
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Elizabeth Hughes Gossett
- Occupations
- philanthropist
- Biography
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Elizabeth Evans Hughes Gossett, the daughter of statesman Charles Evans Hughes, was the first American, and one of the first people in the world, treated with insulin for type 1 diabetes. She received over 42,000 insulin shots over her lifetime.
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Peggy Feury
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Peggy Feury was an American actress on Broadway, in films, and on television. She became a highly regarded acting teacher in New York and then in Los Angeles. Throughout her career, she taught many notable students.
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Helene D. Gayle
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree in psychology
- Occupations
- pediatrician
- Biography
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Helene D. Gayle is an American physician, and academic and non-profit administrator. She was president of Spelman College until 2024. She formerly was CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation's leading community foundations. Earlier in her career she was the director of international humanitarian organization CARE, and spent much of her career in the field of public health research in epidemiology at the CDC.
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Kang Tongbi
- Occupations
- journalistpoet
- Biography
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Kang Tongbi, also romanized as Kang Tung Pih, was the daughter of Kang Youwei, a Chinese reformer and political figure of the late Qing dynasty and early Republican era.
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Marjorie Perloff
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- literary criticuniversity teacherjournalistphilosopherliterary scholar
- Biography
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Marjorie Perloff was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry.
