100 Notable alumni of
Smith College
Updated:
Smith College is 280th in the world, 118th in North America, and 111th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Smith 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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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Occupations
- literary editormodelwritersocialitejournalist
- Biography
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Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie Kennedy, and as Jackie O following her second marriage, was the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. She was regarded as an international icon for her unique fashion choices, and her work as a cultural ambassador of the United States made her popular globally.
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Sylvia Plath
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in literary studies
- Occupations
- autobiographerchildren's writernovelistdiaristpoet
- Biography
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Sylvia Plath was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965), and The Bell Jar (1963), a semi-autobiographical novel published one month before her suicide. The Collected Poems was published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works. For this collection Plath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, making her the fourth person to receive this honor posthumously.
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Barbara Bush
- Occupations
- politicianpresident
- Biography
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Barbara Bush was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. She was previously second lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, when her husband was vice president under President Ronald Reagan, and founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Among her children are George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, and Jeb Bush, the 43rd governor of Florida. Bush and Abigail Adams are the only two women to be the wife of one U.S. president and the mother of another. At the time she became first lady, she was the second oldest woman to hold the position, behind only Anna Harrison, who never lived in the capital. Bush was generally popular as first lady, recognized for her apolitical grandmotherly image.
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Nancy Reagan
- Occupations
- stage actorlawyerbusinesspersonactorautobiographer
- Biography
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Nancy Davis Reagan was an American actress who was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States.
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Julia Child
- Occupations
- copywritertelevision presenterclerkwriteradministrative assistant
- Biography
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Julia Carolyn Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
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Gloria Steinem
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- journalistlecturerwomen's rights activistpolitical activistreporter
- Biography
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Gloria Marie Steinem is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She is also a former CIA operative, where she focused on anti-communism.
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Piper Kerman
- Occupations
- memoiristwriter
- Biography
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Piper Eressea Kerman is an American author. She was indicted in 1998 on charges of felonious money-laundering activities, and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she served 13 months. Her memoir of her prison experiences, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), was adapted into the critically acclaimed Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013). Since leaving prison, Kerman has spoken widely about women in prison and problems with the federal prison system. She now works as a communication strategist for non-profit organizations.
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Margaret Mitchell
- Occupations
- screenwriternovelistprose writerwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel Gone with the Wind, for which she won the National Book Award for Fiction for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Long after her death, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, titled Lost Laysen, were published. A collection of newspaper articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was republished in book form.
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Sara Haines
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- journalisttelevision presenter
- Biography
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Sara Hilary Haines is an American television host and journalist. She is known as one of the co-hosts of the ABC daytime talk shows The View and Strahan, Sara and Keke and the host of the game show The Chase. For her work on the first two series, she received Daytime Emmy Award nominations. She has also worked as a correspondent on Today, ABC News, and Good Morning America.
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Yolanda King
- Occupations
- human rights defendertelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Yolanda Denise King was an American activist and campaigner for African-American rights and first-born child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, who pursued artistic and entertainment endeavors and public speaking. Her childhood experience was greatly influenced by her father's highly public activism.
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Julie Nixon Eisenhower
- Occupations
- visual artistwriter
- Biography
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Julie Nixon Eisenhower is an American author who is the younger daughter of former U.S. president Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat Nixon. Her husband, David, is the grandson of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie Eisenhower.
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Tammy Baldwin
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1984 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and political science
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2013 as the junior United States senator from Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party, she has also served as the secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus since 2017. Baldwin has been the dean of the United States congressional delegation from Wisconsin since 2023, when Representative Ron Kind retired.
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Betty Friedan
- Occupations
- writerjournalistpsychologistsociologistwomen's rights activist
- Biography
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Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now fully equal partnership with men."
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Hanya Yanagihara
- Occupations
- writernovelistjournalistmagazine writer
- Biography
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Hanya Yanagihara is an American novelist, editor, and travel writer. She grew up in Hawaii. She is best known for her bestselling novel A Little Life, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize, and for being the editor-in-chief of T Magazine.
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Anne Morrow Lindbergh
- Occupations
- glider pilotdiaristwriteraircraft pilotpoet
- Biography
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Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh was an American writer and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights.
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Bonnie Franklin
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision directortelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Bonnie Gail Franklin was an American actress. She is best known for her leading role as Ann Romano in the television series One Day at a Time (1975–1984). She was nominated for Emmy, Tony, and Golden Globe Awards.
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Patricia Wettig
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorwriterfilm actorstage actor
- Biography
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Patricia Anne Wettig is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Nancy Weston in the television series Thirtysomething (1987–1991), for which she received a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards.
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Toks Olagundoye
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Olatokunbo Susan Olasobunmi Abeke "Toks" Olagundoye is a Nigerian actress known for playing Jackie Joyner-Kersee on The Neighbors, Hayley Shipton on Castle and Olivia Finch on Frasier. She also voices Nanefua Pizza on Steven Universe, Mrs. Beakley on DuckTales, Countess Cleo on Carmen Sandiego, Zamfir on Castlevania and Mel Medarda on Arcane.
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Mimi Kennedy
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Mary Claire "Mimi" Kennedy is an American actress, author and activist. Best known for her roles in television sitcoms, Kennedy co-starred in numerous short-lived sitcoms before her role as Ruth Sloan on Homefront (1991–93). She received wider recognition with her roles in the Chuck Lorre-created sitcoms Dharma & Greg (1997–2002) and Mom (2013–2021). For her performance in the latter, Kennedy received a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. Kennedy has also appeared in various films, including Pump Up the Volume (1990), Erin Brockovich (2000), In the Loop (2009), Due Date (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011) and The Five-Year Engagement (2012).
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Chien-Shiung Wu
- Occupations
- physicistscientistuniversity teachernuclear physicist
- Biography
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Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and particle physics. Wu worked on the Manhattan Project, where she helped develop the process for separating uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238 isotopes by gaseous diffusion. She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which proved that parity is not conserved. This discovery resulted in her colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang winning the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, while Wu herself was awarded the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978. Her expertise in experimental physics evoked comparisons to Marie Curie. Her nicknames include the "First Lady of Physics", the "Chinese Marie Curie" and the "Queen of Nuclear Research".
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Shelley Hack
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- politicianmodeltelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Shelley Marie Hack is an American actress, model, producer, and political activist. She is best known as the face of Revlon's Charlie perfume from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s, and for her role as Tiffany Welles in the fourth season of Charlie's Angels (1979–80).
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Joanna Barnes
- Occupations
- novelisttelevision actorjournalistfilm actor
- Biography
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Joanna Barnes was an American actress and writer.
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Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Studied in 2002
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorjournalist
- Biography
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Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a Pakistani journalist, filmmaker and political activist known for her work in films that highlight gender inequality against women. She is the recipient of seven Emmy Awards and two Academy Awards.
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Wendy Sherman
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Wendy Ruth Sherman is an American diplomat who served as the United States deputy secretary of state from April 2021 to July 2023. She was a professor of the practice of public leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, a senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
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Bill Smitrovich
- Occupations
- voice actortelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Stanley William Zmitrowicz Jr., known professionally as Bill Smitrovich, is an American actor.
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Maya Deren
- Occupations
- film editorwriterdirectorfilm actorphotographer
- Biography
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Maya Deren was a Russian-born American experimental filmmaker and important part of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer.
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Desiree Akhavan
- Occupations
- actorscreenwriterfilm actortelevision producerfilm director
- Biography
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Desiree Akhavan is an American filmmaker, writer, and actress. She is best known for her 2014 feature film debut Appropriate Behavior, and her 2018 film The Miseducation of Cameron Post.
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Joan Mitchell
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1943 studied English
- Occupations
- painterillustratorprintmaker
- Biography
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Joan Mitchell was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artists in the 1950s. A native of Chicago, she is associated with the American abstract expressionist movement, even though she lived in France for much of her career.
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Jean Harris
- Occupations
- teacher
- Biography
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Jean Struven Harris was the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia, who made US news in the early 1980s when she was tried and convicted of the murder of her ex-lover, Herman Tarnower, a well-known cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.
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Sally Quinn
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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Sally Sterling Quinn is an American author and journalist. She writes about religion for a blog at The Washington Post.
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Jaya Jaitly
- Years
- 1942-.. (age 84)
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Jaya Jaitly is an Indian politician, activist, author, Indian handicrafts curator and former President of Samata Party.
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Emily Webster Murphy
- Occupations
- civil servantpolitical staffer
- Biography
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Emily Webster Murphy is an American attorney and former government official who served as the administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) from 2017 to 2021. Before serving in the GSA, Murphy was an attorney for the Republican National Committee and worked for several congressional committees and executive departments in the field of acquisition policy.
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Catharine MacKinnon
- Occupations
- university teacherfeministlawyerwriterjurist
- Biography
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Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. From 2008 to 2012, she was the special gender adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
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Jane Harman
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1966 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- adjunct professorpolitician
- Biography
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Jane Margaret Harman is an American former politician who served as the U.S. representative for California's 36th congressional district from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2001 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee (2002–2006), before she chaired the Homeland Security Committee's Intelligence Subcommittee (2007–2011). Harman was a conservative Blue Dog Democrat.
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Stephanie Cutter
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitical adviser
- Biography
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Stephanie Cutter is an American communications and political consultant. She served as an advisor to President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris. She previously worked in campaign and communications roles for other prominent Democrats including Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
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Becca Balint
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1990 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- 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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Erin Morgenstern
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
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Erin Morgenstern is an American multimedia artist and the author of two fantasy novels. The Night Circus (2011) was published in more than a dozen languages by 2013 and won the annual Locus Award for Best First Novel. She is a 2012 recipient of an Alex Award. Her second book, The Starless Sea, was published in 2019.
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Meg Wolitzer
- Occupations
- university teachernovelistwriter
- Biography
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Meg Wolitzer is an American novelist, known for The Wife, The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling, The Interestings, and The Female Persuasion. She is a co-director of the BookEnds writing fellowship program at Stony Brook Southampton.
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Kim Janey
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kim Michelle Janey is an American politician, community organizer, and nonprofit executive who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022. As a black woman, her tenure as acting mayor made her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the city.
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Ruth Ozeki
- Occupations
- television directornovelistBuddhist nununiversity teacherfilm director
- Biography
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Ruth Diana Lounsbury, better known as Ruth Ozeki, is an American author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her books and films, including the novels My Year of Meats (1998), All Over Creation (2003), A Tale for the Time Being (2013), and The Book of Form and Emptiness (2021), seek to integrate personal narrative and social issues, and deal with themes relating to science, technology, environmental politics, race, religion, war and global popular culture. Her novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. She teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities in the Department of English Language and Literature.
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Muffie Cabot
- Years
- 1936-.. (age 90)
- Occupations
- socialitewriter
- Biography
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Mabel "Muffie" Wentworth Brandon Cabot is an American heiress and socialite. During the 1980s she served as social secretary to Nancy Reagan. She is the mother of actress Ali Wentworth.
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Halina Poświatowska
- Occupations
- poetwriter
- Biography
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Halina Poświatowska was a Polish poet and writer.
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Ann M. Martin
- Occupations
- children's writernovelistwriter
- Biography
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Ann Matthews Martin is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, known best for The Baby-Sitters Club series.
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Sherry Rehman
- Occupations
- diplomatpoliticianjournalist
- Biography
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Shehrbano "Sherry" Rehman is a Pakistani politician and journalist who has been the member of the Senate of Pakistan since 2015. She was the first female Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from March to August 2018 and served as Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2013. She is currently serving as the Federal Minister for the Ministry of Climate Change.
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Antara Dev Sen
- Years
- 1963-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- editorwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Antara Dev Sen is a British-born Indian journalist based in Delhi.
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Mary Whiton Calkins
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopherpsychologist
- Biography
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Mary Whiton Calkins was an American philosopher and psychologist, whose work informed theory and research of memory, dreams and the self. She developed the paired-associate learning technique and the theory of self-psychology. In 1903, Calkins was the twelfth in a listing of fifty psychologists with the most merit, chosen by her peers. In 1895 Calkins was refused a Ph.D. by Harvard University because of her gender even though she completed all the requirements. She was given honorary membership of the British Psychology Association in 1928.
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Natalie Zemon Davis
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1949 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- screenwriteruniversity teacherwriterhistorianwomen's rights activist
- Biography
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Natalie Zemon Davis, CC was an American-Canadian historian of the early modern period. She was the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University. Her work originally focused on France, but it later broadened to include other parts of Europe, North America, and the Caribbean. For example, her book, Trickster Travels (2006), views Italy, Spain, Morocco and other parts of North Africa and West Africa through the lens of Leo Africanus's pioneering geography. (By 2023, the text had appeared in six translations.) Davis' books have all been translated into other languages: twenty-two for The Return of Martin Guerre. She was the second female president of the American Historical Association (the first, Nellie Neilson, was in 1943).
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Susan Lindauer
- Years
- 1963-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- peace activistauthorjournalist
- Biography
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Susan Lindauer is an American journalist and former U.S. Congressional staffer who was charged with "acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government" and violating U.S. financial sanctions during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was incarcerated in 2005 and released the next year after two judges ruled her mentally unfit to stand trial. The government dropped the prosecution in 2009. In 2010, Lindauer published a book about her experiences. Since 2011 Lindauer has appeared frequently on television and in print as a U.S. government critic.
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Cynthia Harris
- Occupations
- television actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Cynthia Lee Harris was an American film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in the television series Edward & Mrs. Simpson and the sitcom Mad About You.
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Jane Yolen
- Occupations
- science fiction writerpoetwriterchildren's writernovelist
- Biography
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Jane Hyatt Yolen is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 400 books, of which the best known is The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella. Her other works include the Nebula Award−winning short works "Sister Emily's Lightship" and "Lost Girls", Owl Moon, The Emperor and the Kite, and the Commander Toad series. She has collaborated on works with all three of her children, most extensively with Adam Stemple.
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Niki Tsongas
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1968 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- lawyerdeansocial workerpolitician
- Biography
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Nicola Dickson "Niki" Tsongas is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 2007 to 2019. She held the seat formerly held by her husband, the late Paul Tsongas, for the district numbered as Massachusetts's 5th congressional district from 2007 to 2013 and as Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district from 2013 to 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. In August 2017 Tsongas announced that she would not seek another term in the November 2018 election.
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Elim Chan
- Occupations
- conductor
- Biography
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Elim Chan is a Hong Kong-born conductor. In 2025 she was the conductor at the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
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Leyla McCalla
- Occupations
- singersongwriterfolk musiciancellistbanjoist
- Biography
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Leyla Sarah McCalla is an American classical and folk musician. She was a cellist with the Grammy Award–winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, but left to focus on her solo career.
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Susan George
- Occupations
- economistsociologistactivistphilosopherpolitical scientist
- Biography
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Susan George was an American and French political and social scientist, activist and writer on global social justice, Third World poverty, underdevelopment and debt. She was the president of the Transnational Institute, a think-tank located in Amsterdam. She was a fierce critic of the present policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (IBRD) and what she called their 'maldevelopment model'. She similarly criticized the structural reform policies of the Washington Consensus on Third World development. She was of U.S. birth but resided in France, and had dual citizenship since 1994.
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Deborah Bergamini
- Occupations
- journalistpolitician
- Biography
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Deborah Bergamini is an Italian politician, manager and journalist currently member of the Italian Parliament.
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Amy Bloom
- Occupations
- psychotherapistwriternovelistfilm producerpsychologist
- Biography
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Amy Beth Bloom is an American writer and psychotherapist. She is professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University, and has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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Louka Katseli
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1972 graduated with bachelor's degree in economics
- Occupations
- economistentrepreneuruniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Louka Katseli is a Greek politician and economist. She is Professor Emerita at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She served as chair of the National Bank of Greece from 2015 to 2016, as Minister for Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping from 2009 to 2010 and as Minister of Labour and Social Security from 2010 to 2011. In January 2025 she was proposed as a candidate for the Greek Presidency in the 2025 Greek presidential election with the support of Syriza.
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Jane Cooke Wright
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Studied in 1942
- Occupations
- oncologist
- Biography
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Jane Cooke Wright, also known as Jane Jones, was a pioneering cancer researcher and surgeon noted for her contributions to chemotherapy. In particular, Wright is credited with developing the technique of using human tissue culture rather than laboratory mice to test the effects of potential drugs on cancer cells. She also pioneered the use of the drug methotrexate to treat breast cancer and skin cancer (mycosis fungoids).
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Kathleen Woodward
- Years
- 20th Century
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- academicuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Kathleen Woodward is an American academic. She is a Lockwood Professor in Humanities and in English at the University of Washington and has been the Director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities since 2000. Her areas of specialization include 20th-century American literature and culture; discourse of the emotions; technology and science studies; and age studies; digital humanities; and gender, women, and sexuality studies. She is working on risk in the context of globalization and population aging. Her writing talks about the invisibility status of older women and she advocates for an arena of visibility.
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Helen DeWitt
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
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Helen DeWitt is an American novelist. She is the author of the novels The Last Samurai and Lightning Rods (2011) and the short story collection Some Trick (2018). In 2025, a novel which she co-wrote with Ilya Gridneff and published on her website in 2008, Your Name Here, was republished as a commercial book.
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Olive Higgins Prouty
- Occupations
- poetwriter
- Biography
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Olive Higgins Prouty was an American novelist and poet, best known for her 1923 novel Stella Dallas and her pioneering consideration of psychotherapy in her 1941 novel Now, Voyager.
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Corinne Ellemeet
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jkvr. Corinne Elisabeth de Jonge van Ellemeet is a Dutch politician.
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Sandy Skoglund
- Occupations
- photographerinstallation artist
- Biography
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Sandy Skoglund is an American photographer and installation artist. Her contributions to photography have advanced the medium as a form of conceptual art. She is well known for her intricately designed environments, which utilize painterly and sculptural techniques within staged and performative scenes. Her contributions to photography have advanced the medium as a form of conceptual art, and she is considered to be one of the most influential artists working in staged photography. Skoglund’s art has been the subject of numerous one person exhibitions and retrospectives, and is in the collections of major museums and arts institutions.
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Laura Tyson
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Laura D'Andrea Tyson is an American economist and university administrator who is currently a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Berggruen Institute. She served as the 16th Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 1993 to 1995 and 2nd Director of the National Economic Council from 1995 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. Tyson was the first woman to hold each of those posts. She remains the only person to have served in both posts.
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Dorothy Norman
- Occupations
- editorwriterphotographer
- Biography
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Dorothy Norman was an American photographer, writer, editor, arts patron and advocate for social change.
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Satya Rhodes-Conway
- Enrolled in Smith College
- 1990-1994 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in biology
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Satya Rhodes-Conway is an American politician and the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. She was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2023. She previously served on the Madison Common Council between 2007 and 2013. She is the first out lesbian elected as a mayor in Wisconsin, and only the second woman to become mayor of Madison.
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Gretchen Menn
- Occupations
- composerguitarist
- Biography
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Gretchen Menn is an American guitarist and composer who has her own original instrumental work and is also the lead guitarist for Zepparella, an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band. She was included in Guitar Player Magazine's '50 Sensational Female Guitarists' and Guitar Player Magazine's '50 Years of Extraordinary Players.' In 2017 she was one of 11 female guitarists selected to contribute a track onto She Rocks, Vol. 1, a compilation released on Steve Vai’s label: 'Favored Nations'. In 2017 she was nominated by readers of Vintage Guitar Magazine as 'Artist of the Year', alongside Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Dan Auerbach, Rik Emmett, and Andy Timmons. She has provided lessons for Acoustic Guitar Magazine, JamPlay - an online guitar lesson provider, and has been a 3-time counselor at Rock and Roll Fantasy Camps.
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Florence R. Sabin
- Occupations
- physicianscientistuniversity teacheranatomist
- Biography
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Florence Rena Sabin was an American physician and medical scientist known for pioneering work on the development of the lymphatic system and for later transforming public health in Colorado. She was the first woman to hold a full professorship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to head a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. During retirement she led a public-health reform campaign in Colorado that produced the “Sabin Health Laws”; in 1951 she received the Albert Lasker Public Service Award for her public-health work.
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Kimberly Drew
- Occupations
- curatorwriterarts administrator
- Biography
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Kimberly Drew is an American art influencer and writer. She is best known as the former social media manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and her use of the social media handle @MuseumMammy. Drew released her first book, This Is What I Know About Art in June 2020, as part of a children's book series from Penguin, and published an anthology titled Black Futures with New York Times staff writer J Wortham in December 2020.
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Cheryl Crawford
- Occupations
- stage actortheatrical director
- Biography
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Cheryl Crawford was an American theatre producer and director.
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Adrianne Todman
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Adrianne Regina Todman is an American government official who served as the deputy secretary of housing and urban development in the Biden administration from June 2021 to January 2025. Todman served as acting secretary of housing and urban development upon Marcia Fudge's resignation in March 2024. Todman was previously the CEO of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials and also worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Eunice Carter
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Eunice Roberta Hunton Carter was an American lawyer. She was one of New York's first female African-American lawyers and one of the first African-American prosecutors in the United States. She was active in the Pan-African Congress and in United Nations committees to advance the status of women in the world. She led a massive prostitution racketeering investigation, building the case and strategy that allowed New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey to successfully charge Mafioso kingpin Charles "Lucky" Luciano with compulsory prostitution.
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Senda Berenson Abbott
- Occupations
- basketball playerphysical education teacherbasketball coach
- Biography
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Senda Berenson Abbott was a figure of women's basketball and the author of the first Basketball Guide for Women (1901–07). She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor on July 1, 1985, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Jerry Zaks
- Occupations
- directorstage actorfilm directortelevision actortheatrical director
- Biography
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Jerry Zaks is an American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing The House of Blue Leaves (1986), Lend Me a Tenor (1989), and Six Degrees of Separation (1991) and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Guys and Dolls (1992).
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Jess Phoenix
- Occupations
- television presentervolcanologistpolitician
- Biography
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Jess Phoenix is an American volcanologist, writer and multimedia personality. She is the Science Ambassador of the Union of Concerned Scientists. She ran as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the co-host of the Discovery series Hunting Atlantis and the author of Ms. Adventure.
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Eleanor J. Gibson
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1931 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- In 1933 graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- teacherpsychologist
- Biography
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Eleanor Jack Gibson was an American psychologist who focused on reading development and perceptual learning in infants. Gibson began her career at Smith College as an instructor in 1932, publishing her first works on research conducted as an undergraduate student. Gibson was able to circumvent the many obstacles she faced due to the Great Depression and gender discrimination, by finding research opportunities that she could meld with her own interests. Gibson, with her husband James J. Gibson, created the Gibsonian ecological theory of development, which emphasized how important perception was because it allows humans to adapt to their environments. Perhaps her most well-known contribution to psychology was the "visual cliff," which studied depth perception in both human and animal species, leading to a new understanding of perceptual development in infants. Gibson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971, the National Academy of Education in 1972, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977. In 1992, she was awarded the National Medal of Science.
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Euphemia Haynes
- Enrolled in Smith College
- Studied in 1910-1914
- Occupations
- educatormathematician
- Biography
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Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes was an American mathematician and educator. She was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics, which she earned from the Catholic University of America in 1943.
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Margery Eagan
- Occupations
- journalistradio personality
- Biography
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Margery Eagan is a talk radio host and a frequent guest on CNN, ABC, Fox News, and the Imus in the Morning radio show. For many years she was a columnist for the Boston Herald. Subjects of her commentaries include gender/women's issues, Catholicism, and politics.
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Edith Lewis
- Occupations
- journalisteditor
- Biography
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Edith Lewis was a magazine editor at McClure's Magazine, the managing editor of Every Week Magazine, and an advertising copywriter at J. Walter Thompson. Lewis was Willa Cather's domestic partner and was named executor of Cather's literary estate in Cather's will. After Cather's death, Lewis published a memoir of Cather in 1953 titled Willa Cather Living.
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Hilary S. Franz
- Years
- 1960s
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Hilary S. Franz is an American politician and conservation attorney who previously served as the 16th Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands from 2017 to 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party who was previously a member of the Bainbridge Island City Council and was elected as commissioner in 2016. She currently serves as President and CEO of American Forests.
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Alice Parker
- Enrolled in Smith College
- In 1947 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- composermusic arrangerconductormusic teacher
- Biography
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Alice Stuart Parker Pyle, known professionally as Alice Parker, was an American composer, arranger, conductor and teacher.
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Sally Cruikshank
- Occupations
- film directorcomics artistproduceranimator
- Biography
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Sarah "Sally" Cruikshank is an American cartoonist, animator and artist, whose work includes animation for the Children's Television Workshop program Sesame Street, and whose short Quasi at the Quackadero (1975) was inducted into the United States National Film Registry.
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J. Courtney Sullivan
- Occupations
- novelistwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Julie Courtney Sullivan, better known as J. Courtney Sullivan, is an American novelist and former writer for The New York Times.
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Farah Pandith
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Farah Pandith is an American academic. She was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities in June 2009 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The position was made specifically for her after she briefed Secretary Clinton about her work in the Bush administration. She had the rare distinction of being a political appointee for two Republican presidents and President Obama. When she was the Special Representative she traveled to almost 100 countries. After serving under both Secretaries Clinton and John Kerry, she left government. She said she came to Washington after 9/11 again and wanted to serve – she left after more than a decade in public service. She worked at USAID and then went to the National Security Council and then the U.S. Department of State. When she left in 2014, she returned to her home state of Massachusetts.
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Merrie Spaeth
- Years
- 1948-.. (age 78)
- Occupations
- actorfilm actor
- Biography
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Merrie Marcia Spaeth is an American public relations and political consultant.
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Carolyn Dineen King
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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Carolyn Dineen King is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Her chambers are in Houston, Texas.
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Saadia Zahidi
- Born in
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Pakistan - Occupations
- economist
- Biography
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Saadia Zahidi is an economist and senior managing director at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and co-authors the WEF's Future of Jobs, Global Gender Gap and Global Risks Reports. She has served on the United Nations Secretary General's high level panel on women's economic empowerment and on the European Space Agency's (ESA) high level advisory group on human and robotic space exploration. Zahidi is also the author of Fifty Million Rising: The New Generation of Working Women Transforming the Muslim World (2018).
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Brinda Somaya
- Years
- 1949-.. (age 77)
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Brinda Somaya is an Indian architect and urban conservationist.
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Mary Berenson
- Occupations
- writerart historian
- Biography
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Mary Berenson was an American art historian, now thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings of her second husband, Bernard Berenson.
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Cornelia Oberlander
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Cornelia Hahn Oberlander CC OBC LL.D. was a German-born Canadian landscape architect. Her firm, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architects, was founded in 1953, when she moved to Vancouver.
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María Eugenia Estenssoro
- Occupations
- journalistpolitician
- Biography
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María Eugenia Estenssoro is a Bolivian Argentine politician, journalist and activist for women's rights. She represented the city of Buenos Aires in the Argentine Senate from 2007 to 2013.
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Katherine Stieglitz
- Occupations
- photographer
- Biography
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Katherine Stieglitz, or Katherine Stieglitz Stearns, was the daughter of Emmeline, or Emmy, and Alfred Stieglitz, an American photographer and modern art promoter. She was the subject of many of her father's photographs, particularly in her early years. They were exhibited and received praise for their wholesome sentiment. She graduated from Smith College before marrying Milton Sprague Stearns. After the birth of her son in 1923, she was institutionalized for depression and hallucinations and remained there until her death in 1971.
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Sallie McFague
- Occupations
- naturalisttheologianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Sallie McFague was an American feminist Christian theologian, best known for her analysis of how metaphor lies at the heart of how Christians may speak about God. She applied this approach, in particular, to ecological issues, writing extensively on care for the Earth as if it were God's "body". She was Distinguished Theologian in Residence at the Vancouver School of Theology, British Columbia, Canada.
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Mary van Kleeck
- Occupations
- economistsocial workersociologist
- Biography
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Mary Abby van Kleeck was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy.
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Emma Mulvaney-Stanak
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Emma Mulvaney-Stanak is an American politician who has served as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont since 2024. A member of the Vermont Progressive Party, she was a member of the Burlington city council from 2009 and 2010 to 2012, and the Vermont House of Representatives from 2021 to 2024.
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Angela Rasmussen
- Years
- 1970s
- Enrolled in Smith College
- 1996-2000 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- researchervirologist
- Biography
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Angela Lynn Rasmussen is an American virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
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Jessica Brody
- Years
- 1979-.. (age 47)
- Occupations
- children's writernovelist
- Biography
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Jessica Brody is an American author and writing educator. Her writing consists mainly of young adult fiction.
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Tinatin Bokuchava
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Tinatin "Tina" Bokuchava is a Georgian politician who has served as a member of Parliament from 2012 to 2025 and as Chair of the United National Movement since June 2024.
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David Peck Todd
- Occupations
- writerastronomerpoetuniversity teacher
- Biography
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David Peck Todd was an American astronomer. He produced a complete set of photographs of the 1882 transit of Venus.
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Rochelle Lazarus
- Years
- 1947-.. (age 79)
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Rochelle "Shelly" Lazarus is an American business executive who is the chairman emerita of Ogilvy & Mather.
