23 Notable alumni of
SUNY Cortland
Updated:
SUNY Cortland is 1737th in the world, 603rd in North America, and 567th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 23 notable alumni from SUNY Cortland sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Kevin James
- Occupations
- comediantelevision producerproducervoice actorfilm screenwriter
- Biography
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Kevin George Knipfing, known professionally as Kevin James, is an American comedian and actor. James began his career as a stand-up comedian on Long Island in the late 1980s before rising to prominence for playing Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007), for which he received the nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006.
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Mick Foley
- Occupations
- actorprofessional wrestlerwriterfilm actorchildren's writer
- Biography
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Michael Francis Foley is an American comedian, author, and retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, under a WWE Legends contract.
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Aljamain Sterling
- Occupations
- mixed martial arts fighteramateur wrestler
- Biography
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Aljamain Antoine Sterling is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Bantamweight Champion. Sterling is the first UFC champion to win a title by disqualification. He also competed for Cage Fury Fighting Championship, where he is a former Cage Fury Fighting Bantamweight Champion. As of August 26, 2025, he is #5 in UFC featherweight rankings.
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Jake Steinfeld
- Occupations
- actorprofessional fitness coach
- Biography
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Jake Steinfeld is an American actor, fitness personality, and entrepreneur, known for his brand, Body by Jake.
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George Tenet
- Occupations
- intelligence officerpolitician
- Biography
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George John Tenet is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
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Scott Israel
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Scott Israel is an American law enforcement officer in Florida, and the former Broward County Sheriff.
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Ann E. Dunwoody
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Ann Elizabeth Dunwoody is a retired general of the United States Army. She was the first woman in United States military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer rank, receiving her fourth star on 14 November 2008.
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Erin Ryder
- Occupations
- television producerexplorerphotographer
- Biography
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Erin Ryder is an American producer and director in television and digital media. She co-Founded Pax Pictures, a female led production company.
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C. B. Bucknor
- Occupations
- baseball playerbaseball umpire
- Biography
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Christopher Blake Bucknor is a Jamaican umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB) who worked in the National League (NL) from 1996 to 1999 and has worked in both major leagues since 2000.
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Greg Sankey
- Occupations
- athlete
- Biography
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Greg Sankey is an American athletics administrator who has served as the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) since 2015. He was previously employed by the SEC for 13 years in various capacities under commissioner Mike Slive. Prior to that, he was the commissioner of the Southland Conference. Sankey's high profile role has led media outlets to dub him "the most powerful man in college athletics".
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Zane Lamprey
- Occupations
- writerfilm directorfilm screenwritertelevision director
- Biography
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Zane Lamprey is a comedian, actor, editor, producer, and writer for television and movies.
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Nathan Lewis Miller
- Occupations
- lawyerjudgepolitician
- Biography
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Nathan Lewis Miller was an American attorney and politician from New York. A Republican, he served as New York State Comptroller from 1901 to 1903, and a judge of the New York Supreme Court and New York Court of Appeals from 1903 to 1915. From 1921 to 1922, he served as governor of New York.
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Theodore McKee
- Occupations
- judge
- Biography
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Theodore Alexander McKee is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He previously served on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.
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Nate Leaman
- Occupations
- head coach
- Biography
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Nate Leaman is an American ice hockey coach. He is currently the head coach for Providence. He was previously head coach at Union.
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David L. Brainard
- Occupations
- explorer
- Biography
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David Legge Brainard was a career officer in the United States Army. He enlisted in 1876, received his officer's commission in 1886, and served until 1919. Brainard attained the rank of brigadier general and served during World War I as U.S. military attaché in Lisbon, Portugal.
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Matt Senk
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Matt Senk is an American college baseball coach who served as the head coach of the Stony Brook Seawolves. Senk held the head coaching position at Stony Brook from 1991 until his retirement in 2025. Under Senk, Stony Brook has won America East Conference baseball tournaments in 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2019, appearing in the NCAA tournament each of those seasons. In 2012, Stony Brook won the Coral Gables Regional and advanced to the Baton Rouge Super Regional to face LSU. After defeating LSU in a three-game series, the team moved on to the College World Series for the first time in program history. It was the first time that a school from the Northeast had reached the College World Series since 1986.
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Suad Joseph
- Occupations
- anthropologist
- Biography
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Suad Joseph received her doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University in 1975. Dr. Joseph is Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis and in 2009 was President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her research addresses issues of gender; families, children, and youth; sociology of the family; and selfhood, citizenship, and the state in the Middle East, with a focus on her native Lebanon. Her earlier work focused on the politicization of religion in Lebanon. Joseph is the founder of the Middle East Research Group in Anthropology (now the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association), the founder and coordinator of the Arab Families Working Group, the founder of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, and the founding director of the Middle East/South Asian Studies Program at the University of California at Davis. She is also the founder and facilitator of a six-university consortium of the American University of Beirut, American University in Cairo, Lebanese American University, University of California at Davis, and Birzeit University Consortium.
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Sid Jamieson
- Occupations
- head coach
- Biography
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Sid Jamieson is an American former lacrosse coach. He is Cayuga and the only First Nations head coach in the history of NCAA Division I lacrosse.
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Brian Giorgis
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 71)
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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Brian Giorgis is a retired head coach of the Marist Red Foxes women's basketball program, having completed twenty-one seasons as head coach, from 2002 to 2023.
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Fern Kupfer
- Years
- 1946-.. (age 80)
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Fern Lee Kupfer is an American author and retired professor of creative writing at Iowa State University. She has written several novels and as well as memoirs reflecting on her life experiences, the discovery that she is a carrier of the BRCA gene, and the loss of her son to Canavan disease.
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Marion Fricano
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Marion John Fricano was an American Major League Baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics. Fricano, a native of North Collins, New York, pitched in 88 games for the team from 1952–1955, starting in 43 games and attaining a 4.32 earned run average (ERA), 15 wins, 23 losses and two saves. Fricano hit Chicago White Sox hitter and former teammate Cass Michaels in the head on August 27, 1954, effectively ending his career. Fricano is also known for throwing the last pitch in Philadelphia Athletics history against the New York Yankees on September 26, 1954.
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Dominic Carter
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Dominic Carter is an American news reporter and political commentator for Verizon Fios/RNN News which airs in NY, NJ, DE, and CT. He is also a blogger for The Huffington Post, and does radio work for WABC.
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Everette Joseph
- Enrolled in SUNY Cortland
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in physics
- Occupations
- atmospheric physicist
- Biography
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Everette Joseph is an American atmospheric scientist who has served as the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado since 2019.
