List of Barnard College people

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

Notable alumnæ

Academics and scientists

Elsie Clews Parsons (1896), first woman elected President of the American Anthropological Association
Virginia Gildersleeve (1899), Dean of Barnard College and delegate to the charter conference of the United Nations in 1945
Beatrice Becker Warde (1920s), calligrapher, librarian, researcher on type matters and influence upon 20th century typography^[1]
Margaret Mead (1923), anthropologist
Anna Schwartz (1933), economist
Helen M. Ranney (1941), first woman to lead a university department of medicine in the U.S., be president of the Association of American Physicians, or serve as a Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration^[2]
Vivian Sobchack (1961), cultural critic
Karla Jay (1968), pioneer of lesbian and gay studies
Ellen V. Futter (1971), President of Barnard College and the American Museum of Natural History
Rebecca Goldstein (1972), philosopher, biographer, and novelist
Jacqueline Barton (1974), CalTech chemist and MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant" winner
Janna Levin (1988), cosmologist
Louise Rosenblatt (1920s), influential literary theorist and educator

Actresses and performers

Jane Wyatt (1930), actress
Peggy McCay (1951), actress
Joan Rivers (1954), star comedian, TV host
Lee Remick, actress
Twyla Tharp (1963), choreographer, dancer
Jill Eikenberry (1968), actress
Lauren Graham (1988), actress, played Lorelai Gilmore on TV show Gilmore Girls
Cynthia Nixon (1988), actress, played Miranda Hobbes on TV show Sex and the City
Sprague Grayden, actress, played Judith Montgomery on Joan of Arcadia
Sarah Thompson, television actress
Christy Carlson Romano (2006), actress
Jaime Gleicher, actress (currently attending)
Clara Bryant, actress (currently attending)

Artists

Sarah Charlesworth (1969), photographer and conceptual artist

Athletes

Gloria Callen (1946), swimmer^[3]
Robin Wagner (1980), figure-skating coach
Stacey Borgman (1993), member of crew team for the United States at the 2004 Olympics^[4]
Erinn Smart (2001), fencer for the United States at the 2004 Olympics^[5]

Businesswomen

Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger (1913), wife of New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger
Martha Stewart (1963), business magnate, entrepreneur, homemaking advocate
Alexis Stewart (1987), daughter of Martha Stewart

Journalists

Freda Kirchwey (1915), journalist, editor and publisher of The Nation
Ellen Willis (1960s), essayist and pop music critic
Judith Miller (1969), ex-correspondent for New York Times who reported on the story of Iraq's alleged WMD program; Aspen Strategy Group member
Anna Quindlen (1974), author and columnist for Newsweek who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992
Suzanne Bilello (1977), author who with Rose Marie Arce (Barnard class of 1986) was a member of a Newsday team in 1992 that shared the Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting^[6]
Natalie Angier (1978), author and science writer for the New York Times who won the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 1991
Jami Bernard (1978), film critic
Lis Wiehl (1983), legal analyst for Fox News
Maria Hinojosa (1984), correspondent for CNN, NOW (TV series) on PBS, and host of NPR's Latino USA
Atoosa Rubenstein (1993), founder of CosmoGirl and editor-in-chief of Seventeen (magazine); youngest ever editor of a teen magazine
Jeannette Walls, gossip columnist for MSNBC and author of The Glass Castle
Mona Charen, nationally syndicated columnist, political analyst, and author
Alison Gregor (1989), writer, New York Times

Musicians, singers, and composers

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

Political and judicial figures

Jessie Wallace Hughan (1898, Phi Beta Kappa), United States Senate candidate, author, teacher, founder of Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity^[7]
Jeane Kirkpatrick (1948), first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum (1952), United States District Court judge
Anna Diggs Taylor (1954), United States District Court judge
Judith Kaye (1958), first woman in highest position in state judiciary, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
Bettye B. Binder (1960), on the governing council of the New York Committee for Democratic Voters that successfully removed Tammany Hall and its leader, Carmine DeSapio, from power in 1961
Paula Franzese, professor of real property law at Seton Hall Law School

Spies

Judith Coplon (1943), Soviet spy in U.S. Justice Department whose convictions were overturned on technicalities
Marion Davis Berdecio, accused Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, comrade of Coplon and Wovschin
Flora Wovschin, Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, stepdaughter of Columbia professor/Soviet spy Enos Wicher

Writers

Stella George Stern Perry (1898), author, founder of Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity
Alice Duer Miller (1899), writer and advisory editor of The New Yorker
Helen Hoyt (1900s), poet
Mary Antin (1902), author of the immigrant experience
Faith McNulty (1920s, attended one year), writer
Léonie Adams (1923), poet
Charlotte Armstrong (1925), writer
Zora Neale Hurston (1928), Harlem Renaissance writer
Sasha Cagen (1996), writer
Hortense Calisher, writer
Elizabeth Janeway (1935), author and critic
Patricia Highsmith (1940), author of The Talented Mr. Ripley
Yelena Albala (1945), poet^[8]^[9]
Francine du Plessix Gray (1952), writer
Elise Cowen, poet of the Beat Generation
Joyce Johnson (1955), writer
June Jordan (1955) writer and activist
Sidra Stone, (1957), author and co-creator of Voice Dialogue
Erica Jong (1963), writer
Joan Abelove, writer
Indrani Aikath Gyaltsen, writer
Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, screenwriter
Tova Mirvis, novelist
Alice Notley, poet
Ntozake Shange (1970), playwright
Mary Gordon (1971), writer
Tory Dent (1981), poet and HIV/AIDS activist
Jhumpa Lahiri (1989), Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies
Ann Brashares (1989), author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Edwidge Danticat (1990), writer
Marisha Pessl (2000), author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Kait Kerrigan (2003), playwright

Miscellaneous

Grace Lee Boggs (1935), author and political activist
Joan Vollmer (1940s), member of the Beat Generation; killed by her husband, William S. Burroughs
Sharon Blynn (1993), creator of "Bald Is Beautiful" campaign, cancer awareness advocate^[10]

Notable faculty

Robert Antoni, Commonwealth Writers Prize winning author
Randall Balmer, author
Dave Bayer, mathematician; actor and math consultant for the film A Beautiful Mind; one of few holders of an Erdős-Bacon number
Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
Frank Brady, leading figure in international chess
John Cheever (1956-1957), Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and short story writer
Mary Cochran, former principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and chair of the dance department^[11]
Dennis Dalton, political scientist
Mortimer Lamson Earle, classicist
Lynn Garafola, renowned dance critic, historian, and curator^[12]
Virginia Gildersleeve
Katie Glasner, former Twyla Tharp dancer^[13]
Ken Hechler, U.S. Congressman from West Virginia
Perry Mehrling, economic historian
Gabriela Mistral, First Latin American Nobel Prize winner for Literature
Samuel Alfred Mitchell, astronomer
Raymond Moley (1923-1933), proponent and later critic of the New Deal
Frederick Neuhouser, philosopher
Elaine Pagels (1970-1982), scholar of early and gnostic Christianity
Caryl Phillips, British novelist
Sanya Popovic (1986), fiancée of Pan Am Flight 103 victim Bernt Carlsson
Claudia Rankine, poet
Frances Richard, poet and critic
Alan F Segal, ancient Judaism and origins of Christianity, author of Life after Death, and Paul the Convert
Edmund Ware Sinnott, botanist
Dolph Sweet, actor
Elie Wiesel (1997-1999), Nobel Peace Prize winning writer and activist
Mary Gordon, writer

Recipients of the Medal of Distinction

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

1977

Joan Mondale

1978

1979

1980

Dorothy Height, Honorary Alumna 2004, [13]
Julius S. Held
Mary Dublin Keyserling '30
Margaret Mahler
Alan Pifer
Henriette H. Swope '25

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

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

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000, [16]

Doris Kearns Goodwin delivered the 2000 Commencement address, [17]
Hanna Holborn Gray
Annie Leibovitz
Kathie L. Olson

2001

Morris Dees, [18]
Susan Hendrickson
Maxine Greene '38
Bernice Johnson Reagon, [19]. Ms. Reagon delivered the 2001 Commencement address, [20]

2002

2003

Susan Band Horwitz
Judith Miller (journalist) '69, delivered the Commencement address [21]
Martha Nussbaum

2004, [22]

2005

2006

2007

References

External links

Barnard Medalists

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[3] 1946 alumni in 2006

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