100 Notable alumni of
Barnard College
Updated:
Barnard College is 223rd in the world, 97th in North America, and 94th 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.
-
Martha Stewart
- Occupations
- entrepreneurjournalisttelevision presentermodelwriter
- Biography
-
Martha Helen Stewart is an American retail businesswoman, 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.
-
Lauren Graham
- Occupations
- voice actorwriternovelistfilm producerfilm actor
- Biography
-
Lauren Helen Graham is an American actress and author. She is best known for portraying Lorelai Gilmore on The WB dramedy series Gilmore Girls, for which she received several nominations, winning two Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV Parental Unit in 2005 and 2006, and for playing Sarah Braverman on the NBC drama series Parenthood (2010–2015). 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.
-
Greta Gerwig
- Occupations
- voice actorwriterplaywrightfilm screenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
-
Greta Celeste Gerwig is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. Initially known for working on various mumblecore films, she has since 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.
-
Kesha
- Occupations
- animal rights advocatefilm directorsingercomposersinger-songwriter
- Biography
-
Kesha Rose Sebert, formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round".
-
Chelsea Peretti
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actorfilm directoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Cynthia Nixon
- Occupations
- stage actorslam poettelevision actoractorpoet
- Biography
-
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004), she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and reprised the role in the films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), as well as the television show And Just Like That... (2021–present).
-
Joan Rivers
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 1954
- Occupations
- television actordirectorfilm actorfilm producerfilm director
- Biography
-
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.
-
Vinessa Shaw
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorfilm directormodeltelevision actor
- Biography
-
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).
-
Cassandra Clare
- Occupations
- journalistfilm producerscreenwriterwriterchildren's writer
- Biography
-
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.
-
Lee Remick
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorstage actortelevision actorcharacter actor
- Biography
-
Lee Ann Remick was an American actress and singer. 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). She also earned seven Emmy Award nominations.
-
Patricia Highsmith
- Occupations
- screenwriterwritercomics writernovelist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Margaret Mead
- Occupations
- poetcuratorfilm directorwriteranthropologist
- Biography
-
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker, who appeared frequently in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
-
Frankie Shaw
- Occupations
- television produceractorfilm actorfilm directortelevision actor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Suzanne Vega
- Occupations
- recording artistsingerplaywrightguitaristwriter
- Biography
-
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American singer-songwriter of folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s she released four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the UK, "Marlene on the Wall", "Left of Center", "Luka" and "No Cheap Thrill".
-
Mozhan Marnò
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorfilm directortelevision actorwriter
- Biography
-
Mozhan Marno 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.
-
Christy Carlson Romano
- Occupations
- film directormusiciansingervoice actorstage actor
- Biography
-
Christy Carlson Romano is an American actress, podcaster, and singer. She is best known for playing Ren Stevens on Even Stevens and voicing the titular character in Kim Possible, both of which aired on the Disney Channel.
-
Maya Soetoro-Ng
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 1993
- Occupations
- teacher
- Biography
-
Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng is an Indonesian-born 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. Formerly a high school history teacher, Soetoro-Ng is the maternal half-sister of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.
-
Zora Neale Hurston
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- 1925-1928 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in anthropology
- Occupations
- film directorjournalistnovelistfolkloristhistorian
- Biography
-
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.
-
Laurie Anderson
- Occupations
- video artistwriterartistphotographercomposer
- Biography
-
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work spans 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.
-
Kelly McCreary
- Occupations
- film actorvoice actorstage actoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Jhumpa Lahiri
- Occupations
- translatoracademicwriternovelistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri is a British-American author known for her short stories, novels, and essays in English and, more recently, in Italian.
-
Park Yeon-mi
- Occupations
- writerjournalisthuman rights activist
- Biography
-
Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector, YouTuber, author, and American conservative activist, described as "one of the most famous North Korean defectors in the world". She fled from North Korea to China in 2007 at age 13 before moving to South Korea, then to the United States. Park made her media debut in 2011 on the show Now On My Way to Meet You, where she was dubbed "Paris Hilton" due to her stories of her family's wealthy lifestyle. She came to wider global attention after her speech at the 2014 One Young World Summit in Dublin, Ireland. Park's memoir, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, was published in 2015, and as of 2023 has sold over 100,000 copies. During the 2020s, she became a conservative political commentator in the American media through speeches, podcasts and the 2023 publication of her second book, While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America.
-
Alexis Stewart
- Occupations
- journalisttelevision presenterradio personality
- Biography
-
Alexis Gilbert Stewart is an American television host and radio personality. She is the only child of Martha Stewart and her ex-husband Andrew. 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.
-
Jeannette Walls
- Occupations
- writerjournalistopinion journalist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Jane Wyatt
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Lionel Shriver
- Occupations
- writerjournalistnovelist
- Biography
-
Lionel Shriver is an American-British author and journalist who lives in Portugal. Her novel We Need to Talk About Kevin won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005.
-
Carol S. Dweck
- Years
- 1946-.. (age 79)
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1967 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in psychology
- Occupations
- university teacherpsychologist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Ottessa Moshfegh
- Occupations
- writernovelistscreenwriter
- Biography
-
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.
-
Erica Jong
- Occupations
- women's rights activistwriterpoetnovelist
- Biography
-
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. According to The Washington Post, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, while by 2022, the New York Times claimed that it had sold more than 37 million copies worldwide.
-
Sprague Grayden
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Judith Miller
- Occupations
- war correspondentjournalistwriter
- Biography
-
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.
-
Fatima Bhutto
- Occupations
- writerjournalistpoet
- Biography
-
Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani writer and columnist. Born in Kabul, she is the daughter of politician Murtaza Bhutto, sister of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and granddaughter of former Prime Minister and President of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. She was raised in Syria and Karachi, and received her bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a master's degree from the SOAS University of London.
-
Twyla Tharp
- Occupations
- choreographerfilm directorballet dancerdancerwriter
- Biography
-
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 music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.
-
Molly Jong-Fast
- Years
- 1978-.. (age 47)
- Occupations
- novelistpolitical punditwritermemoiristpodcaster
- Biography
-
Molly Jong-Fast is an American writer, journalist, author, political commentator, and podcaster.
-
Louise Post
- Occupations
- composersinger-songwriterguitaristsinger
- Biography
-
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.
-
Isra Hirsi
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 2021
- Occupations
- environmentalistschoolchildclimate activist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Sarah Thompson
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
-
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).
-
Lis Wiehl
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
-
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.
-
Zuzanna Szadkowski
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
-
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, 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.
-
Lydia Davis
- Occupations
- translatoruniversity teachernovelistwriterlinguist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Peggy McCay
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Jeane Kirkpatrick
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticiandiplomatpolitical scientist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Kathleen Neal Cleaver
- Occupations
- activistlawyerjournalistprofessor
- Biography
-
Kathleen Neal Cleaver is an American law professor and activist, known for her involvement with the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party, a political and revolutionary.
-
Ntozake Shange
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- screenwriterchoreographerplaywrightactorwriter
- Biography
-
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.
-
Grace Lee Boggs
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1935 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in philosophy
- Occupations
- politiciannon-fiction writeractivistcivil rights advocateeditor
- Biography
-
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 James Boggs, her husband of some forty years, took their own political direction. 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 and published by the University of California Press. She is regarded as a key figure in the Asian American, Black Power, and Civil Rights movements.
-
Jamie Babbit
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwriterdirectorfilm directorwriter
- Biography
-
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.
-
Helen Gahagan Douglas
- Occupations
- film actorpoliticianstage actoractor
- Biography
-
Helen Gahagan Douglas was an American actress and politician.
-
Rebecca Goldstein
- Occupations
- biographernovelistwriterclassical scholarphilosopher
- Biography
-
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an American philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual. She has written ten books, both fiction and non-fiction. 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.
-
Eileen Ford
- Occupations
- model agent
- Biography
-
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.
-
Anna Quindlen
- Occupations
- children's writercolumnistnovelistwriterjournalist
- Biography
-
Anna Marie Quindlen is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist.
-
Petra Costa
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directoractor
- Biography
-
Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker and actress. 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. She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2018.
-
Edwidge Danticat
- Occupations
- children's writernovelistuniversity teachershort story writerwriter
- Biography
-
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.
-
Janna Levin
- Occupations
- physicistmathematiciantheoretical physicist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Sana Amanat
- Occupations
- editorexecutive producercomics writercomics editor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Aline MacMahon
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
-
Aline Laveen MacMahon was an American actress. Her Broadway stage career began under producer Edgar Selwyn in The Mirage during 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).
-
Jeanine Tesori
- Occupations
- composerlyricist
- Biography
-
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 and six Tony Award nominations. 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.
-
Rana Foroohar
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Sophia Takal
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwriterfilm directoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Sigrid Nunez
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
-
Sigrid Nunez is an American writer who is best known for her novels. Her seventh novel, The Friend, won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction.
-
Maria Hinojosa
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
Maria de Lourdes Hinojosa Ojeda is a Mexican-American journalist. She is the anchor and executive producer of Latino USA on National Public Radio, a 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.
-
Hope Portocarrero
- Occupations
- socialite
- Biography
-
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.
-
Kellie Gerardi
- Occupations
- astronautcustomer service workermedia professional
- Biography
-
Kellie Gerardi is an American popular science communicator, social media influencer, and commercial astronaut who is known for a sub-orbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic as a payload specialist in 2023. She has worked at Palantir Technologies since 2015, where she is a lead on the company's mission operations team.
-
Joan Whitney Payson
- Occupations
- businesspersonphilanthropistsocialiteentrepreneurart collector
- Biography
-
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.
-
Sheila Nevins
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 1960 graduated with bachelor's degree in English
- Occupations
- film directorfilm producertelevision producer
- Biography
-
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. She has produced over 1,000 documentary films for HBO and is one of the most influential people in documentary filmmaking. 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.
-
Kristen Roupenian
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- In 2003 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in psychology and English
- Occupations
- writerscreenwritershort story writer
- Biography
-
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.
-
Maria Semple
- Occupations
- television producerscreenwriterwriternovelist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Audrey Strauss
- Born in
-
United States - Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
-
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.
-
Leora Dana
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
-
Leora Dana was an American film, stage and television actress.
-
Ellen Willis
- Occupations
- women's rights activistmusic criticjournalistessayist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Anna Schwartz
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teachereconomist
- Biography
-
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."
-
Ann Brashares
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
-
Ann Brashares is an American young adult novelist. She is best known as the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
-
Susan Stamberg
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
Susan Stamberg is an American radio journalist. Stamberg 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's considered one of NPR's "Founding Mothers" along with Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer and the late Cokie Roberts. After nearly 50 years at the network, Stamberg is a Special Correspondent and her reports appear weekly on NPR's Morning Edition.
-
Azita Raji
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- diplomatinvestment banker
- Biography
-
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.
-
Lauren Tarshis
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writer
- Biography
-
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.
-
Sharon Kleinbaum
- Occupations
- rabbi
- Biography
-
Sharon Kleinbaum is an American rabbi who served as spiritual leader of New York City's Congregation Beit Simchat Torah for 32 years. She is now the synagogue's first Senior Rabbi Emerita. She has been an active campaigner for human rights and civil marriage for gay couples.
-
Katherine Boo
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
-
Katherine "Kate" J. 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.
-
Suki Kim
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Studied in 1992
- Occupations
- writerjournalistteacher
- Biography
-
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.
-
Alexis Sablone
- Occupations
- artistskateboarderarchitect
- Biography
-
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.
-
Laura Flanders
- Occupations
- journalistradio personality
- Biography
-
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". The brothers Alexander, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, all journalists, are her half-uncles. Author Lydia Davis is her half-aunt. Her sister is Stephanie Flanders, a former BBC journalist. Actress Olivia Wilde is her cousin.
-
Hallie Ephron
- Occupations
- journalistnovelist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Agnes E. Meyer
- Occupations
- journalistpatron of the artsactivistpolitical activistphilanthropist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Polly Trottenberg
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Polly Ellen Trottenberg is an American government official who served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation under Pete Buttigieg from 2021 to 2025. She served 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.
-
Sadie Dupuis
- Occupations
- musicianwriterpoetguitarist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Dean Spade
- Years
- 1977-.. (age 48)
- Occupations
- university teacherLGBTQ rights activistjuristlawyer
- Biography
-
Dean Spade is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law.
-
Annie Leonard
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directoractivist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Nancy Gernter
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
-
Nancy Gertner is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She assumed senior status on May 22, 2011, and retired outright from the federal bench on September 1, 2011. She is now a professor of practice at Harvard Law School.
-
Mary Harriman Rumsey
- Occupations
- activist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Rachel Cohn
- Occupations
- writerscience fiction writerchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Loretta Mester
- Occupations
- businesspersonbankereconomist
- Biography
-
Loretta J. Mester was president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
-
Nancy Dupree
- Occupations
- anthropologistarchaeologist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Irma Brandeis
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterpoetliterary critic
- Biography
-
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.
-
Helene D. Gayle
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree in psychology
- Occupations
- pediatrician
- Biography
-
Helene D. Gayle is an American physician, and academic and non-profit administrator. She has been president of Spelman College since 2023. 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.
-
Peggy Feury
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
- Biography
-
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.
-
Kang Tongbi
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Maxine Greene
- Occupations
- philosopher
- Biography
-
Sarah Maxine Greene was an American educational philosopher, author, social activist, and teacher. Described upon her death as "perhaps the most iconic and influential living figure associated with Teachers College, Columbia University", she was a pioneer for women in the field of philosophy of education, often being the sole woman presenter at educational philosophy conferences as well as being the first woman president of the Philosophy of Education Society in 1967. Additionally, she was the first woman to preside over the American Educational Research Association in 1981.
-
Nina Ansary
- Occupations
- historianwriter
- Biography
-
Nina Ansary is an Iranian–American historian and author best known for her work on women's equity in Iran. Ansary's research has notably countered conventional assumptions of the progress of women in Iran while continuing to advocate for full emancipation. In 2015, Women's eNews recognized Ansary as one of "21 leaders of the 21st century" and in 2019 she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
-
Elizabeth Hughes Gossett
- Occupations
- philanthropist
- Biography
-
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.
-
Marjorie Perloff
- Enrolled in Barnard College
- Graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- literary criticuniversity teacherjournalistphilosopherliterary scholar
- Biography
-
Marjorie Perloff was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry.
-
Louise Rosenblatt
- Occupations
- philosopher
- Biography
-
Louise Michelle Rosenblatt was an American university professor. She is best known as a researcher into the teaching of literature.
-
Ellen Kushner
- Occupations
- radio personalitychildren's writernovelisteditor
- Biography
-
Ellen Kushner is an American writer of fantasy novels. From 1996 until 2010, she was the host of the radio program Sound & Spirit, produced by WGBH in Boston and distributed by Public Radio International.
