List of Oberlin College and Conservatory people

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This list of Oberlin College and Conservatory People contains links to Wikipedia articles about notable alumni of and other people connected to Oberlin College, including the Conservatory of Music.

Notable alumni

Nobel laureates

• Stanley Cohen (M.A. zoology, 1945), Nobel (Physiology and Medicine, 1986), for "discoveries of growth factors"
• Robert Millikan (B.A. 1891), Nobel laureate (Physics, 1923) "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect"
• Roger Wolcott Sperry (B.A. English 1935, M.A. psychology 1937), neurobiologist who studied split-brain research, Nobel laureate (Medicine, 1981), "for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres"

Pulitzer Prize

• Carl Dennis (transferred to University of Chicago, University of Minnesota), Pulitzer prize-winning poet of Practical Gods; Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
• Michael Dirda (BA 1970), Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reviewer, author
• Emily Nussbaum (BA 1988), winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• Vijay Seshadri (BA 1974), winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for 3 Sections
• George Walker (1941, honorary degree 1983), composer, first African American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music (1996, for Lilacs)
• Thornton Wilder (transferred to Yale), playwright and novelist; three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth; U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day
• Franz Wright (BA 1977), recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Walking to Martha's Vineyard

Academy, Grammy, Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe awards

• Mark Boal (1995), screenwriter, recipient of two Academy Awards (Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for The Hurt Locker, 2009)
• James Burrows (1962), producer and creator of Cheers and Emmy award-winning director of Will & Grace, Wings, News Radio
• Dr. Francois S. Clemmons (1976), sang the role of Sportin' Life in Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, recipient of a company Grammy Award Best Classical Recording
• Marc Cohn (1981), singer-songwriter, recipient of a Grammy Award (1991, Best New Artist)
• Lena Dunham (2008), recipient of the 2013 Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Series - Music or Comedy, and Best Actress in a TV Series, the HBO series Girls
• Alex Klein (1987), oboist, recipient of a Grammy Award (2002, Best Solo Instrumentalist with Orchestra)
• Rhiannon Giddens (2000), member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops; Grammy winner (2010, Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album)
• William Goldman (1952), novelist (The Princess Bride) and recipient of Academy Awards for the screenplays of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President's Men (1976)
• Charles Harbutt (1983), classical recording engineer, Grammy recipient (2000 and 2003)
• Bill Irwin (1973), actor and clown, 1984 MacArthur Fellow, recipient of a Tony Award for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2005)
• Natasha Katz (1981), lighting designer, recipient of four Tony Awards for The Glass Menagerie (2014), Once (2012), The Coast of Utopia (2007), and Aida (2000)
• Michael Maguire (1977), (1987) recipient of Tony Awards for Les Misérables, A Little Night Music (New York City Opera), Kismet (Royal Canadian Opera), Annie Get Your Gun (Miami Opera), currently prominent Beverly Hills divorce attorney; voted Super Lawyer/Rising Star (2011–13)
• Gregory Mosher (1971), director, recipient of Tony Award for revivals of Anything Goes (1984) and Our Town (1989)
• Julie Taymor (1974), director, filmmaker, screenwriter, recipient of Emmy and Tony awards (Frida, Titus, Broadway's The Lion King, Across the Universe)

MacArthur Fellows

The following alumni are fellows of the MacArthur Fellows Program from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As this is an interdisciplinary award, they are listed here in addition to their listing in their field of accomplishment.

• Jad Abumrad (1995), radio producer, known for the NPR-distributed Radiolab
• Alison Bechdel (1981), pioneering LGBT cartoonist, author of Dykes to Watch Out For and Fun Home
• Claire Chase (2001), flautist and arts entrepreneur
• Jeremy Denk (1990), pianist and writer
• Ralf Hotchkiss (1969), engineer and businessman
• Bill Irwin (1973), actor
• Richard Lenski (1977), biologist
• Diane E. Meier (1973), doctor, MacArthur Fellowship awarded 2008
• Thylias Moss (1981), poet and playwright
• Julie Taymor (1974), director, MacArthur Fellowship awarded 1991
• Paul Wennberg (1985), chemist

Academia

• Tracy B. Strong (1963), Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy at the University of Southampton
• Louisa Lydia Alexander (1856), schoolteacher
• Joshua Angrist (1982), labour market economist
• Lauren Berlant (1979), feminist, queer cultural studies scholar
• Christopher Browning (1968), historian of the Holocaust
• Dr. Francois S. Clemmons (1997-2013), Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence, now Emeritus Professor at Middlebury College
• Johnnetta B. Cole (1957), first female African-American president of Spelman College, president of Bennett College 2002–07
• John R. Commons (1888), institutional economist and labor historian
• John Millott Ellis (1851), acting President of Oberlin College and abolitionist
• George Fairchild (1862), third President of Kansas State University
• Peter Tyrrell Flawn (1947), geologist and former President of the University of Texas at Austin
• Jeffrey I. Gordon (1969), biologist and Professor
• Joseph L. Graves, Jr. (1977), Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Biological Studies
• James Monroe Gregory (transferred to Howard University), Dean of Collegiate Department at Howard University
• Erwin Griswold (1925), lawyer, Solicitor General of the United States and dean of Harvard Law School
• Walter Heller (1935), economist and educator
• Robert Hutchins, educational philosopher, president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago
• Charlene Drew Jarvis (1962), president of Southeastern University
• Robert Jervis (1962), International Relations professor
• Barbara Johnson (1969), literary critic, professor
• Edward O. Laumann (1960), George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College; editor of the American Journal of Sociology (1978-1984, 1995-1997); Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago; Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago; Provost of the University of Chicago; director of the Ogburn Stouffer Center for Population and Social Organization at the University of Chicago
• Tom Novak (1977), Denit Trust Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Marketing, The George Washington University
• David Novak (1977), Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Laurence Perrine, author and professor
• Paul Pierson (1981), professor of political science
• Roger Montgomery (1949), Dean of Architecture, City Planning, and Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley
• Edward F. Mooney (1962), Professor of Religion at Syracuse University
• L. L. Nunn, founder of Telluride Association and Deep Springs College
• Willard V. O. Quine (1930), philosopher and logician
• Albert Rees - former University of Chicago and Princeton economics professor, former Provost at Princeton, advisor to President Gerald Ford
• Charles A. Reich (1949), legal and social scholar
• William Sanders Scarborough (1875), classical scholar
• John E. Schwarz (1961), political scientist and author
• Robert E. Scott, (1965), law professor
• Donald S. Strong (1912-1995), political scientist.
• Kenneth Waltz, (1948), political science professor
• Barbara Wertheimer, (1946), historian and labor organizer
• C. Martin Wilbur (1931), historian, Sinologist
• Garnet C. Wilkinson (1902), educator and administrator
• Warren Wilson, namesake of Warren Wilson College in North Carolina
• Sheldon S. Wolin (1944), political theorist
• William Gautier (1902), educator at Lawrenceville School

Business

• Joani Blank (1959), founder of Good Vibrations
• Marc Canter (1980), co-founder of MacroMind (predecessor company of Macromedia)
• Jerry Greenfield (1973), co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
• John Gutfreund (1951), executive, former CEO of Salomon Brothers Inc.; Business Week named him "King of Wall Street" in the 1980s
• Charles Martin Hall (1885), co-discoverer of the electrolytic process for producing aluminium; founder of Alcoa, Inc. (and contributor to the American spelling of "aluminum")
• Ralf Hotchkiss (1969), co-founder of Whirlwind Wheelchair International; 1989 MacArthur Foundation Fellow
• Nova Spivack (1991), entrepreneur

Government

• Horatio McClean Jones (1849), Territorial Supreme Court Justice for the Territory of Nevada, 1861-1863; Circuit Court Judge in St. Louis, Missouri, 1870-1876

Premiers

• H. H. Kung (1906), banker and Premier of the Republic of China (1938–39)

Legislators

• Blanche K Bruce, second African-American Senator from Mississippi, serving 1874–1881
• Yvette Clarke (transferred from Medgar Evers College), Democratic representative for New York's 11th congressional district, 2007–present
• Jacob Dolson Cox, politician and author, governor of Ohio (1866-1888), US Secretary of the Interior (1869-1870)
• Paul Drennan Cravath (1882), lawyer, partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore; creator of the "Cravath System"; founding Vice President of the Council on Foreign Relations
• Heather Deal, (BA, 1983) City Councillor 2005-present, Vancouver City Council
• John Langalibalele Dube, first (founding) President of the African National Congress
• Myron T. Herrick, 42nd Governor of Ohio
• Richard Hodges (1986), member of the Ohio House of Representatives, 1993-1999
• Hsiao Bi-khim (1993), member of the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) of Taiwan, representing the Democratic Progressive Party and the 1st Electoral District of Taipei City; Vice President of Liberal International
• Alfred A. Laun, Jr., Wisconsin State Senator
• Eduardo Mondlane (1953), Mozambican political leader
• Edward Schwartz, (BA, 1965), at-large City Councilman 1984-87, Philadelphia City Council; first Councilman with a Pd.D (doctorate in political theory, Rutgers University); first Philadelphia Councilman to computerize his constituent services
• Harrison A. Williams (1941), U.S. senator and congressman from New Jersey

Mayors

• Stephanie Rawlings Blake (1992), Mayor of Baltimore
• Adrian Fenty (1992), former Mayor of Washington, D.C.

Executive council

• Bruce Cole (1964), chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under George W. Bush
• Erwin Griswold (1925), solicitor general under presidents Johnson and Nixon
• Richard N. Haass (1973), president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State
• Cynthia Hogan (1979), Counsel to the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, under President Obama
• Martha N. Johnson (1974), former official in the Clinton administration; Administrator of the United States General Services Administration
• Anne O. Krueger (1953), award-winning economist; Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund; Oberlin trustee (1987–95)
• Robert Kuttner (1965), co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect; one of five co-founders of the Economic Policy Institute
• Charles Sawyer (1908), Secretary of Commerce to Harry S. Truman

Diplomats

• Kenneth J. Fairfax (1977), ambassador to Kazakhstan (July 2011 – present)
• John Mercer Langston (1849), U.S. Congressman representing Virginia's 4th Congressional District; US minister to Haiti under president Rutherford B. Hayes
• Steven Robert Mann (1973), ambassador to Republic of Turkmenistan (1998-2001)
• Edwin O. Reischauer (1931), ambassador to Japan, 1961–1966
• Marcie Berman Ries (1972), US ambassador to Bulgaria (October 1, 2012 – present)
• Carl Rowan (1947), US ambassador to Finland (1963); deputy assistant Secretary of State under President Kennedy; director of US Information Agency under President Johnson
• John S. Service (1931), foreign service officer, China Hand
• Durham Stevens (1871), assassinated diplomat to Japan
• Tsiang Tingfu (1918), ambassador from Republic of China to Russia (1936-1938), United Nations (1947-1962), and USA (1962-1965)

Other

• Tom Balmer (1974), Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
• Lee Fisher (1973), former Lieutenant Governor and former Attorney General of Ohio
• John Jay McKelvey, Sr. (1884), Attorney, Founder of Harvard Law Review.
• Ruth A. Parmelee (1907), Christian missionary
• Todd Portune (1980), former member of Cincinnati City Council (1993-2000); current (2013) Hamilton County Commissioner (2001–)
• Albert Rees (1943), advisor to President Gerald Ford, former University of Chicago and Princeton economics professor, former Provost at Princeton
• Moses Fleetwood Walker, first African American major league baseball player
• Sylvia Williams (1957), former museum director for National Museum of African Art at Smithsonian Institution; pioneer in African art history

Activists

• Nan Aron (1970), founder and president of Alliance for Justice
• Kathleen Neal Cleaver (transferred to Barnard College), Senior Research Associate at Yale Law School known for her involvement in the Black Panther Party
• Henry Roe Cloud, Native American political leader
• Rennie Davis, anti-Vietnam war activist and one of the Chicago Seven
• Matilda Evans (1891), first African American woman to practice medicine in South Carolina; community health advocate
• John Mercer Langston (1849), early civil rights activist
• James Lawson (Graduate School of Theology, 1950s), theoretician and tactician of nonviolence in US civil rights movement
• Jerry Rubin, anti-Vietnam war activist and one of the Chicago Seven
• William F. Schulz (1971), former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA
• Barbara Seaman (1956), principal member of the women’s health feminism movement
• Peter Staley (1983), AIDS activist, founding director of the Treatment Action Group
• Lucy Stone (1847), feminist and abolitionist
• Anna Louise Strong (1905), activist and author
• Mary Church Terrell (1884/1888), author, activist
• John Todd (1841), abolitionist, conspirator with John Brown, founder of Tabor College
• Wayne Bidwell Wheeler (1894), attorney, prohibitionist

Journalism

Broadcast media

• Jad Abumrad, radio journalist, host and producer of Radiolab
• Alex Blumberg (1989), producer, This American Life
• Chris Broussard (1990), ESPN sports analyst
• Ben Calhoun (2001), radio journalist, producer for This American Life
• Zoe Chace (2004), reporter, NPR's Planet Money
• David Greene (1982) radio producer, NPR's Car Talk
• Jon Hamilton (1983), NPR science correspondent
• Chana Joffe-Walt (2003), radio journalist, reporter for NPR and Planet Money
• Aleks Krotoski, television and radio presenter ("Digital Human" on BBC Radio 4)
• Robert Krulwich (1969), television and radio journalist (RadioLab on WNYC)
• Roman Mars, radio producer and host, 99% Invisible on 91.7 KALW in San Francisco
• Seth Rudetsky (1988), radio host, Broadway actor, pianist, writer
• Alix Spiegel (1994), co-host of NPR's Invisibilia; producer for This American Life

Print and online

• Peter Baker (1988), New York Times senior White House correspondent and author
• Michael Duffy (1980), writer, Washington Bureau Chief and editor of Time magazine
• Kim France (1987), founding editor of Lucky magazine
• Lisa Jervis (1993), creator and editor of Bitch magazine
• Fred Kaplan (1976), journalist and Slate columnist
• James Kim (1992), senior CNET editor and technology analyst
• Michelle Malkin (1992), writer (Los Angeles Daily News, The Seattle Times), author (In Defense of Internment), political commentator
• James McBride (1979), journalist (Boston Globe, The Washington Post), author (The Color of Water), musician
• Adam Moss (1979), editor of New York magazine
• Jane Pratt (1984), creator of Sassy and Jane magazines
• Tim Riley (1983), NPR critic; author (Tell Me Why, Lennon: Man, Myth, Music); Emerson College journalism professor (aka Tim Mikesell)
• Joshua Rothkopf (1993), Film editor and senior film critic of Time Out New York magazine. Chair of New York Film Critics Circle (2012–14)
• Carl T. Rowan (1947), journalist
• David Schlesinger (1982) Editor-in-Chief, Reuters news, Thomson Reuters
• Steve Silberman (1982), science writer for Wired
• Sonia Shah (1990), investigative journalist
• Sophia Yan (2009), reporter for Bloomberg News

Literature

See also: Pulitzer Prize

• Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl
• Ishmael Beah (2004), author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
• Bruce Beasley, poet, author of Theophobia, The Corpse Flower, Signs and Abominations, Loard Brain
• Alison Bechdel (1981), cartoonist (Dykes To Watch Out For) and graphic novelist (Fun Home)
• Geoffrey Blodgett (1953), historian and author of Cass Gilbert: The Early Years
• Wendy Brenner (1987), author of Phone Calls From the Dead
• Alice Rowe Burks (1942), author of Who Invented the Computer?: The Legal Battle that Changed Computing History
• Michael Byers (1991), novelist and author of The Coast of Good Intentions, Long for This World, and Percival's Planet
• Gail Carriger (1998), fantasy novelist of Soulless
• Tracy Chevalier (1984), novelist and author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Angels, and The Lady and the Unicorn
• Anna J. Cooper (1884), author and teacher, fourth African-American woman to receive a PhD
• Alev Lytle Croutier, Turkish-American author
• Charles D'Ambrosio (1982), essayist, short story writer
• Josh Emmons (1995), novelist (The Loss of Leon Meed, Prescription for a Superior Existence)
• Darcy Frey (1983), non-fiction writer
• Alan Furst (1962), novelist, author of Blood of Victory
• Myla Goldberg (1993), novelist (Bee Season, Wickett's Remedy)
• Melissa Fay Greene (1975), author (There Is No Me Without You)
• Linda Gregerson (1971), award-winning poet (Waterborne, Magnetic North)
• David Halperin (1973), author (One Hundred Years of Homosexuality)
• Bill Henderson (1965) author of Stark Raving Elvis, I Killed Hemingway, I, Elvis: Confessions of a Counterfeit King
• Joe Hickerson (1957), American folklorist
• Donovan Hohn (1972), author of Moby-Duck
• Jonathan Holden (1963), poet (Knowing: New and Selected Poems)
• Michael Hollinger (1984), playwright (Red Herring)
• Cathy Park Hong (1998), poet (Translating Mo'um)
• Tim Hurson (1967), speaker, writer, creativity theorist, author of Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking
• Kiese Laymon (1997), professor and author of "Long Division" and "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America"
• David Maine (1985), novelist (The Preservationist)
• Megan McDonald (1981), writer of children's literature (Judy Moody, The Great Pumpkin Switch)
• J. Hillis Miller (1948), literary critic (The Ethics of Reading, On Literature)
• Naeem Mohaiemen (1993), writer and artist whose projects research histories of the 1970s international left
• Martha Moody (1977), author of Best Friends, Office of Desire, and Sometimes Mine
• Thylias Moss (1981), poet, playwright, and 1996 MacArthur Fellow
• Josh Neufeld (1989), cartoonist (Keyhole, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge)
• Thisbe Nissen (1994), novelist (Out of the Girls' Room and Into the Night, Osprey Island)
• Peggy Orenstein (1983), author (Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture)
• Rich Orloff (1973), playwright (Big Boys)
• Dzvinia Orlowsky (1975), poet (Except for One Obscene Brush Stroke)
• Jena Osman (1985), poet (The Character)
• Suzanne Paola (1980), memoirist and poet (Lives of The Saints)
• Lia Purpura (1986), poet (Stone Sky Lifting), essayist (Increase, On Looking)
• David Rees (1994), cartoonist (My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, Get Your War On)
• S. J. Rozan (1972), novelist (Reflecting the Sky), Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Award Winner, 2003
• John C. Russell (1985), playwright (Stupid Kids)
• Kathy Lou Schultz (1990), poet (Some Vague Wife)
• Elizabeth Searle (1983), novelist (Celebrities in Disgrace)
• Stephen W. Sears (1954), author (Gettysburg)
• Vijay Seshadri (1974), poet (The Long Meadow)
• Matthew Sharpe (1984), novelist (Nothing is Terrible, The Sleeping Father, Jamestown)
• Gary Shteyngart (1995), novelist (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, Super Sad True Love Story)
• Donald J. Sobol (1948), author of the Encyclopedia Brown series
• Matthew Stadler (1981), novelist (Allan Stein)
• Jon Swan (1950), playwright, poet, librettist, and journalist
• Marcia Talley (1965), novelist, Agatha and Anthony Award Winner, 2002, 2003, 2005
• Michael Teig (1990), poet (Big Back Yard)
• Geoffrey Ward (1962), author (The West: An Illustrated History and The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945)
• Bruce Weigl (1973), poet (Archeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems)
• William Drake Westervelt (1871 and 1874; honorary degree 1926), Hawaiian historical writer
• Christopher Robin "Kit" Woolsey (1964), writer (Matchpoints), bridge internationalist and backgammon expert
• John Wray (1993), novelist (The Right Hand of Sleep, Lowboy)
• Franz Wright (1977), poet, Pulitzer Prize winner (Walking to Martha's Vineyard)

Visual and performing arts

Film and television

• Eric Bogosian (1976), novelist, playwright (Talk Radio, subUrbia), and actor (Law and Order: Criminal Intent)
• Avery Brooks (1970; honorary degree in 1996), actor in Uncle Tom's Cabin, American History X, Spenser: For Hire, best known as Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Peter Buchman (1989), screenwriter for Jurassic Park III and Che
• John Cazale (class of 1954, transferred to Boston University), actor in The Godfather (portrayed Fredo Corleone) and The Deer Hunter
• Dr. Francois S. Clemmons (1968-1992) actor/singer best known as Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
• Lena Dunham (2008), actor, director, writer, best known for Tiny Furniture and the HBO series Girls
• Su Friedrich (1975), experimental filmmaker
• Nancy Giles (1981), actress in China Beach, commentator on CBS News Sunday Morning.
• Ed Helms (1996), actor (The Office, The Hangover), comedian, correspondent on The Daily Show
• Edward Everett Horton (1909; left his junior year; honorary degree 1953), actor (The Front Page, Top Hat, Holiday), voice actor (Rocky & Bullwinkle)
• Maggie Keenan-Bolger (2006), actress and writer, wrote From the Inside, Out; co-founder of 4th Meal Productions; The Will Rogers Follies and The Music Man national tours
• Judy Kuhn (1981), singer, Broadway performer, and singing voice of Disney's Pocahontas
• Rex Lee (1990), actor, best known for his role on Entourage
• Daniel London (1995), actor (Minority Report, Old Joy, Patch Adams)
• Jim Newman (1955), founder of Dilexi Gallery and Other Minds New Music Festival, San Francisco
• Daniel Radosh (1991), journalist, blogger, writing staff of The Daily Show
• Oren Rudavsky (1979), filmmaker (Hiding and Seeking, And Baby Makes Two, The Treatment)
• Corey Stoll (1998), stage and screen actor (Intimate Apparel, Law & Order: LA, Midnight in Paris, House of Cards)
• Nick Wauters, television writer, creator of the NBC series The Event
• Alexander Whybrow (2003), professional wrestler under the name Larry Sweeney

Stage theater

• John Kander (1951), of the musical theater team Kander and Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago)
• Romulus Linney (1953, honorary degree 1994), playwright
• Albert Marre (1944), Tony Award-winning director and producer
• Julie Atlas Muz, burlesque dancer, actress, stage director
• Richard Tatum (1988), stage and voice actor; Associate Artistic Director of the ARK Theatre Company, Los Angeles

Music

• Benjamin Bagby (1974), vocalist, harpist, scholar, and founder of early music ensemble Sequentia
• MaVynee Betsch, piano and voice
• Chris Brokaw (1986), rock drummer for Codeine; guitarist for Come, Consonant
• Brian Chase (2000), drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Claire Chase, flautist
• Will Chase, Broadway actor
• James David Christie, organist and pedagogue
• Dr. Francois S. Clemmons, (1980-2000) conductor, arranger, and founder/director of The Harlem Spiritual Ensemble
• Stanley Cowell, jazz pianist
• Corey Dargel, composer and electronic musician
• Dorothy DeLay, violinist
• Jeremy Denk, pianist
• R. Nathaniel Dett, conductor, pianist, composer, arranger
• Eighth Blackbird (all members), contemporary music sextet
• Chris Eldridge (2004), guitarist in Punch Brothers, formerly in the Infamous Stringdusters
• Peter Evans, trumpeter
• James Feddeck, Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra; Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
• John Ferguson, organist and composer
• Sullivan Fortner, jazz pianist
• Rhiannon Giddens (2000), founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops
• Judith Gordon, pianist
• Jason Myles Goss (2003), singer/songwriter
• Denyce Graves, opera singer
• Al Haig, jazz pianist
• Natalie Hinderas, professor, pianist and composer
• Moses Hogan, conductor, composer, and arranger
• Paul Horn (1952), jazz flautist
• Matt Hubbard, Willie Nelson's producer; member of 7 Walkers
• International Contemporary Ensemble, contemporary music ensemble
• Steven Isserlis (1980), British cellist, director of the International Musicians' Seminar
• John Jang (1978), American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader
• John Kander, composer of the musicals Chicago, Cabaret, and Curtains
• John Kennedy, composer and conductor
• Carla Kihlstedt, violinist, singer
• Alex Klein, oboist
• Jennifer Koh (1997), violinist, 1994 International Tchaikovsky Competition winner
• Judy Kuhn, actress, singer
• Scott Lawton, conductor
• Sylvia Olden Lee, vocal coach and accompanist
• Dave Lerner (1998), bassist (2000-2007), (Ted Leo & The Pharmacists), songwriter
• Michael Maguire, actor/singer, best known for playing Enjolras in the original Broadway production of Les Misérables
• David Maslanka, composer
• James McBride, saxophonist, composer, author of New York Times best-seller The Color of Water
• John McEntire (1991), drummer (Tortoise)
• John T. "Jack" Melick, Jr., bandleader, pianist, and arranger
• David Miller, tenor, member of the multi-platinum operatic pop quartet Il Divo
• Jason Molina, singer-songwriter and guitarist
• Amy X. Neuburg (1984), classical and pop singer
• Karen O, singer, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Milt Okun (1948), arranger, producer and musical director for popular 1960s singers such as Peter Paul and Mary, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and John Denver
• Bob Ostertag, composer, performer, instrument builder, journalist, activist, historian
• Doe Paoro (2006), singer-songwriter
• James Paul, conductor
• Alexander Perls (1998), songwriter, music producer
• Liz Phair (1989), singer/songwriter
• William Porter, organist and pedagogue
• Nancy Priddy, singer-songwriter, back-up singer on Leonard Cohen's debut album
• Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor
• Josh Ritter (1999), singer/songwriter
• Lucy Wainwright Roche (2003), musician, half-sister of Rufus Wainwright
• Thomas Rosenkranz, pianist
• Ned Rothenberg, woodwind multi-instrumentalist, composer
• Christopher Rouse, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer
• Michael Rudman (1960), award-winning theater director
• Jonathan Sacks, orchestrator for films including Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.
• Alex Scally (Guitarist) Indie-Pop band Beach House
• Jenny Scheinman, jazz violinist
• Andrew Shapiro (1998), composer
• Arlene Sierra, composer
• Robert Sims
• Neal Smith (jazz drummer), jazz drummer, Berklee assoc. professor
• Robert Spano (1983), music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
• William Grant Still, composer
• Dick Sudhalter (1960), jazz musician and critic
• Jon Theodore, drummer, The Mars Volta
• Jen Trynin (1986), rock singer/songwriter
• David Zinman, conductor

Visual arts

• Cory Arcangel (2000)
• Julia Vogl (2007)

Religion

• William Ament, controversial missionary to China
• Hobart Baumann Amstutz, bishop in the The Methodist Church
• Thanissaro Bhikkhu, abbot of a Buddhist monastery in California
• Antoinette Brown (1847), first ordained female minister in the U.S.
• Lewis Sperry Chafer (1891), theologian; one of the prominent proponents of Christian Dispensationalism; founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary
• Fanny Jackson Coppin (1865), influential educator and missionary
• Marcus Dale, Early African-American preacher in New Orleans
• Vernon Johns (1919), African-American preacher, widely hailed as the father of the civil rights movement
• Martha Root (1890s), Hand of the Cause in the Bahá'í Faith
• Lorenzo Snow, fifth president and a prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Henry Benjamin Whipple, Episcopal Bishop and advocate for the Native Americans, First Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota

Science

See also: Nobel laureates

• Arthur L. Benton (1931), neuropsychologist
• Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Civil War nurse and hospital administrator, post-war veteran advocate
• Thaddeus Cahill (1889), physicist; inventor of the teleharmonium, the first electromechanical musical instrument
• Kenneth Stewart Cole (1922), biophysicist, best known for creating the concept of the voltage clamp
• Joan Feynman (1948), Solar astrophysicist at JPL in Pasadena, California Sister of Richard Feynman
• Thomas Ebbesen (1966), physical chemist, pioneer in the field of nanoscience for which he received the Kavli Prize
• Jim Fixx (1957), author of The Complete Book of Running
• Thomas Frieden (1982), Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Robert Galambos (1914–2010), researcher on bat echolocation.
• John Gofman (1939), a scientist in the Manhattan Project; activist on issues with nuclear power and radiation danger
• Elisha Gray, an inventor of the telephone beaten to the patent office by Alexander Graham Bell; credited with invention of the electromechanical oscillator
• Philip Hanawalt (1954), scientist, co-discoverer of DNA excision repair
• Robert Aimer Harper (1886), botanist, president of the Botanical Society of America
• Edward Haskell (1929), scientist and educator who dedicated his life to the unification of human knowledge into a single discipline
• Ellen Hayes (1878) astronomer and mathematician
• Ralph F. Hirschmann (1922–2009), biochemist who led synthesis of the first enzyme.
• Ernest Ingersoll, naturalist
• Richard Lenski (1977), biologist and 1996 MacArthur Fellow
• John E. Mack (1951), psychologist, author (A Prince of Our Disorder)
• Rollo May (1930), psychologist, author
• Catherine McBride-Chang (1989), psychologist, researcher in cross-cultural development of early literacy skills
• George Herbert Mead (1883), philosopher, leading figure of American pragmatism
• Ira Mellman (1973), cell biologist, discoverer of endosomes
• John Wesley Powell (1858), geologist and explorer
• Anita Roberts (1964), molecular biologist who made pioneering observations of TGF beta
• Larry Squire (1963), Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at University of California, San Diego
• Lauren V. Wood, allergist, immunologist, and Captain in the US Public Health Service
• Paul Wennberg (1985), chemist and 2002 MacArthur Fellow
• Felisa Wolfe-Simon, geomicrobiologist at the US Geological Survey; Fellow of the NASA Astrobiology Institute

Disease Eradicators

• Donald Henderson (1928-2016), epidemiologist, eradicator of smallpox

Notable faculty

Humanities

History

• Geoffrey Blodgett
• Jeffrey F. Hamburger, art historian
• James Hepokoski, music historian
• William Andrew Moffett
• Seymour Slive
• Robert Soucy
• Laurence Thomas
• Amasa Walker
• Aaron Wildavsky

Literature

• Pamela Alexander
• Kazim Ali
• Dan Chaon
• Martha Collins
• Angie Estes
• bell hooks
• Toni Morrison
• Heinz Politzer
• Eugene B. Redmond

Philosophy

• Frank Ebersole
• John Millott Ellis
• Wilson Carey McWilliams
• Mike Michalson
• Ronald Grigor Suny

Theology

• James Fairchild
• William Weston Patton

Visual art and performance

• Roger Copeland, Professor of Theater and Dance
• Pipo Nguyen-duy, Professor of Studio Art, Photography

Social science

Anthropology

• Ana Cara, scholar of Latin America
• Calvin C. Hernton
• Susan Kane, archaeologist and Professor of Art History
• Albert Howe Lybyer, scholar of the Middle East
• Gisela Richter, archaeologist
• W. I. Thomas
• John Milton Yinger

Economics

• Thomas Nixon Carver, professor 1894-1902
• James Monroe (1846), congressman from Ohio, professor 1883-1896

Sociology

• W. I. Thomas
• John Milton Yinger

Natural science

Physics

• Mildred Allen
• Thaddeus Cahill, composer, physicist and inventor of the Telharmonium
• Elisha Grey, inventor of the electromechanical oscillator

Geology

• George Nelson Allen, first geologist to survey Yellowstone National Park
• Bruce Simonson, leading expert on banded iron formations

Environmental science

• David W. Orr

Music

Composition

• John Luther Adams
• George Nelson Allen
• Daniel Asia
• Conrad Cummings
• Herbert Elwell
• Jonathan Kramer
• David Lang, composer and founder of Bang on a Can
• Tom Lopez
• David Maslanka
• Gary Lee Nelson
• Lewis Nielson
• Curtis Roads
• Anna Rubin
• Igor Stravinsky, visiting composition professor, 1962-1963
• Gwyneth Van Anden Walker
• Olly Wilson
• John Williams, visiting composer, 1999-2000
• Joseph R. Wood

Performance

• Ryan Anthony, trumpeter with Canadian Brass
• David Boe, organ
• Stephen Clapp, Violin
• Robin Eubanks, trombone
• Diana Gannett
• Rex Martin, tuba
• Hugh Ragin, trumpet
• Peter Slowik, viola
• John Solum
• Robert Spano
• Alexa Still, flute

Music theory

• Allen Cadwallader, theorist of Schenkerian analysis
• Jeffrey Mumford
• Willard Warch

Voice

• Salvatore Champagne
• Marilyn Horne
• Richard Miller

Administration

• William Dawes, trustee and fundraiser
• Mildred H. McAfee, Dean of Women

Presidents

• Asa Mahan, 1835–50
• Charles Grandison Finney, leader in the Second Great Awakening, president 1851–66
• James Fairchild, 1866–89
• William Gay Ballantine, 1891–96
• John Henry Barrows, 1899-1902
• Henry Churchill King, 1902-27
• Ernest H. Wilkins, 1927–46
• William Stevenson, 1946–60
• Robert K. Carr, 1960–69
• Robert W. Fuller, 1970–74
• Emil Danenberg, 1975–82
• S. Frederick Starr, 1983–94
• Nancy Dye, 1994–2007
• Marvin Krislov, 2007–present

Athletics

• C. K. Fauver
• Edgar Fauver
• Edward Fauver
• Moses Fleetwood Walker, first African-American major league baseball player
• John Heisman, football coach in 1892 and 1894
• T. Nelson Metcalf