Selection of Notable Alumni

Architecture

  • Judith DiMaio ’72: dean, New York Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Design Architecture; winner, Rome Prize in architecture
  • John Diebboll ’78: principal, Michael Graves & Associates, NYC; author of The Art of the Piano
  • Kevin Alter ’85: associate dean for graduate programs, Sid W. Richardson Centennial Professor of Architecture, director of the Summer Academy in Architecture, and associate director of the Center for American Architecture and Design at The University of Texas at Austin
  • Arjun Desai ’88: founder and partner, Desai/Chia Architecture (rated among the top 100 design firms by House Beautiful); winner, 2004 AIA/NY Design Award and 2005 American Architecture Award for their Cooper Square project
  • David Choi ’96: principal, CHOIDESIGN + Partners; winner, Coptic Church International Design Contest, Edge as Center Competition

Arts Administration

  • Harvey Lichtenstein ’53: chair, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Local Development Corporation; former executive director and president emeritus of the Board of Trustees, Brooklyn Academy of Music
  • Anne Waldman ’66: director and cofounder, Jack Kerouac School, The Naropa Institute; the Dylan Thomas Memorial Prize and NEA fellowships
  • Maren Jenkins Hassinger ’69: director, the Rhinehart School of Graduate Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art
  • Deborah Borda ’71: president and CEO, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; former president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic
  • Kathy Halbreich ’71: associate director, The Museum of Modern Art (New York)
  • Sharon Ott ’72: former artistic director, Seattle Repertory Theater; Tony and Obie Awards
  • Peter Barnet ’73: curator, Medieval Art and The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • James Levin ’76: founder, Cleveland Public Theater
  • George King ’77: director, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
  • Dan Cameron ’79: director, visual arts, Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans)
  • Matthew Marks ’85: founder and owner, Matthew Marks Gallery

Business

  • Judith Jones ’45: vice president and senior editor, Knopf
  • Corinne Silverman Kyle ’50: research director, Gallup International Institute
  • Priscilla Alexander ’58: founder and president, ProTravel International
  • Pamela deWindt Burke ’64: first vice president, McDonald & Co. Securities
  • Ellen Beskind Safir ’66: founder/CEO, New Century Advisers
  • Ruth Elias Rogers ’70: chef/owner, River Café, London; coauthor, Italian Country Cookbook
  • Kathryn Talalay ’71: project editor, W.W. Norton & Co.; author of Composition in Black and White: The Life of Phillippa Schuyler
  • Bruce Berman ’74: chairman and CEO, Village Roadshow Pictures; executive producer, The Matrix, Ocean's Eleven, Analyze This, Mystic River, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Andrew Langerman ’74: senior managing director, Bear Stearns Co., Inc.
  • Glenn Horowitz ’77: rare book dealer/owner, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc.
  • Brad Jacobs ’77: former chairman and CEO, United Rentals, Inc.
  • John Sheldon ’77: managing director, Lazard
  • Nicholas Stephens ’77: partner, Edgewood Management Company; registered investment adviser
  • Jim Weinstock ’78: vice president of investments, Alex Brown & Sons
  • Andrea Fiuczynski ’85: head of West Coast business development and principal auctioneer, Christie's

Dance / Choreography

  • Aileen Passloff ’53: chair, dance department, Bard College
  • Julie Arenal Primus ’60: choreographer for original and revival Broadway productions of Hair
  • Carla Maxwell ’67: artistic director, José Limón Dance Company; Bessie Award winner
  • Liz Lerman ’69: choreographer, founder/director, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; 2002 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner
  • Penny Campbell ’70: lecturer of dance, Middlebury College
  • Lisa Nelson ’71: choreographer, editor, Contact Quarterly
  • Sara Rudner MFA ’99: director of dance, Sarah Lawrence College; former principal dancer, Twyla Tharp Dance; recipient of Bessie Award and Guggenheim grant

Education

  • Sally Liberman Smith ’50D: founder/director, Lab School, Washington, DC
  • Joan Hutton Landis ’51: former chair of liberal arts, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia
  • Uliana Fischbein Gabara ’61: dean of international education, University of Richmond (VA)
  • Ellen Taussig ’66: cofounder, The Northwest School, Seattle, WA; head of school since 1992
  • Ellen McCulloch-Lovell ’69: president, Marlboro College; former deputy assistant to President Clinton
  • Judith Butler ’78: professor and chair of comparative literature and rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley; author, Gender Trouble
  • Douglas Biow ’79: professor of Italian and comparative literature, University of Austin; 2006 Guggenheim fellow
  • Jeanne M Poduska ’85: deputy director and principal research scientist, American Institutes for Research, Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Research in Schools
  • Emanuelle A. Kihm ’93: founder, The Open Classroom Collaborative, NYC arts education organization

Film / Theater

  • Carol Channing ’42: Broadway and film actress; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hello, Dolly!; Golden Globe Award, Academy Award nomination
  • Alan Arkin ’55: actor, director, composer, author; film credits, Catch-22, The Russians Are Coming, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grosse Pointe Blank, The In-Laws, Little Miss Sunshine (Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor)
  • Suzanne Shepherd ’56: actress; film credits, Working Girl, Goodfellas; TV credits, Law & Order, The Sopranos
  • Holland Taylor ’64: actress; film credits, To Die For, The Truman Show, One Fine Day; TV credits, Bosom Buddies, The Practice (Emmy Award), Two-and-a-Half Men
  • Alley Mills ’73: actress; TV credits, The Wonder Years; Emmy and Golden Globe Awards
  • Mitch Markowitz ’75: screenwriter, Good Morning Vietnam, Crazy People; TV credits, M*A*S*H, Too Close for Comfort
  • Tim Daly ’79: actor; film credits, Diner, Made in Heaven; TV credits, Witness to the Execution, Wings, The Fugitive; Theatre World and Dramalogue awards
  • Liz Glotzer ’83: president of production, Castle Rock Pictures; executive producer, The Shawshank Redemption, The Majestic
  • Melissa Rosenberg ’86: writer/producer; TV credits, The Agency, Boston Public, Dexter; film, Step Up
  • Chris Bowen ’88: member, Blue Man Group; Obie and Drama Desk Awards
  • Peter Dinklage ’91: actor; film credits, Living in Oblivion, The Station Agent, Elf
  • Justin Theroux ’93: actor; film credits, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Duplex, Mulholland Drive, American Psycho; TV credits, Alias, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under

Government and Public Service

  • Elizabeth Raspolic ’60: former U.S. Ambassador to Guinea, to Gabon, and to São Tomé and Principe
  • Elinor Bacon ’63: former CEO, National Capital Revitalization Corporation; former deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Jerri Perloff ’65: program director, National Institutes of Health
  • Gay Johnson McDougall ’69: first UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues; executive director, International Human Rights Law Group; 1999 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner
  • Princess Yasmin Aga Khan ’73: vice chairman, Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Association; president, Alzheimer's Disease International
  • Eric Ramirez ’85: former University of Michigan Population Fellow, HealthScope Tanzania
  • Aaron Scholer ’97, MLAS ’98: Director of National Security Policy for progressive political strategy and legislative advocacy group; Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University, Department of Government
  • Aliza Akhtar ’03: assistant to the general counsel, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York

Journalism / Television

  • Pam Abel Hill ’60: broadcast journalist; two-time Emmy Award winner
  • Gail Hirschorn Evans ’63: former executive vice president, CNN Newsgroup; author of Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman
  • Elizabeth Richter Zimmer ’66: former dance editor, The Village Voice
  • Wendy Perron ’69: editor-in-chief, Dance Magazine
  • Francesca Lyman ’72: environmental writer for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Sierra magazine; “Your Environment" column for MSNBC
  • Ted Mooney ’73: senior editor, Art in America magazine
  • Carl Navarre ’74: former publisher and editor-in-chief, Atlantic Monthly Press; CEO, MyPublisher, Inc.
  • Alec Wilkinson ’74: staff writer, The New Yorker; six nonfiction books; Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
  • Thomas Matthews ’75: senior editor, Wine Spectator
  • Raphael Rubinstein ’79: senior editor, Art in America magazine
  • James Geary ’85: former deputy editor of TIME magazine, Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Music

  • James Tenney ’58D: experimental composer; Roy E. Disney Family Chair in Musical Composition, CalArts
  • Joan Tower ’61: composer; Asher Edelman Professor of Music, Bard College; Grammy Award recipient
  • Elizabeth Swados ’73: composer, writer, director; three-time Obie winner
  • Lisa Sokolov ’76: jazz vocalist, improviser and composer; originator, Embodied VoiceWork; director, The Institute for Embodied VoiceWork in New York; associate professor, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
  • Michael Starobin ’79: orchestrator on Broadway for Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Falsettos, Guys and Dolls
  • Ahrin Mishan ’86: composer, TV credits, Ed, The Whoopi Goldberg Show
  • Susannah Waters ’86: soprano, profiled in Opera News; NYC Opera debut 1997 in Handel's Xerxes
  • Chris Barron ’90: lead singer, Spin Doctors
  • Christopher P. Lombardi ’90: cofounder, Matador Records
  • Anthony Wilson ’90: composer/arranger, guitarist; toured with Diana Krall

Science / Medicine

  • Barrie Cassileth ’59: Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Judith Schneider Bond ’61: chair, biochemistry and molecular biology, Penn State University; president, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  • Patricia Cronin Adams ’64: former president, New England Pediatric Society
  • Peter S. White ’71: professor of ecology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; director, North Carolina Botanical Garden
  • Stephen Pratt ’77: senior chemist, Argonne National Laboratory
  • Andrew Vershon ’79: professor, molecular biology and biochemistry, Waksman Institute, Rutgers University
  • Jennifer Mieres ’82: director, nuclear cardiology; associate professor, New York University School of Medicine
  • Michael Coady ’89: assistant professor, department of surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
  • Kristina Stinson ’92: postdoctoral fellow, ecology, Harvard University

Visual Arts

  • Helen Frankenthaler ’49: painter; pioneer in abstract expressionism
  • Susan Crile ’65: painter; faculty, Hunter College
  • Sally Mann ’73: photographer; named one of "America's best photographers" by TIME magazine
  • Ralph Alswang ’87: official White House photographer, Clinton Administration
  • Tom Sachs ’89: installation artist; work in New York Times Magazine, Elle Décor magazine, The New York Post, GQ magazine
  • Anna Gaskell ’92: photographer; named as one of three Best and Brightest art photographers in America by Esquire magazine

Writing

  • Carolyn Cassady ’44: author; book, Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg
  • Miriam Marx Allen ’49: author; book, Love, Groucho: Letters from Groucho Marx to His Daughter Miriam
  • Riva Magaril Poor ’56: author; award-winning book, 4 Days, 40 Hours: Reporting a Revolution in Work and Leisure (1970); more than 500 speeches and 200 guest appearances on TV and radio shows, including Today, CBS News, Merv Griffin & Phil Donahue
  • Gretel Ehrlich ’67: author; book, Arctic Heart: A Poem Cycle and Islands, The Universe, Home; Whiting Creative Writing award, Guggenheim fellowship
  • Elizabeth Frank ’67: author; Pulitzer Prize for Louise Bogan: A Portrait; Joseph E. Harry Chair in Modern Languages and Literature, Bard College
  • Kathleen Norris ’69: author of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, The Cloister Walk, and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (New York Times Notable Book); Guggenheim fellowship
  • Lynn Emanuel ’72: author; books, Hotel Fiesta, The Dig, Then, Suddenly; National Poetry Series Award, Pushcart Prize, NEA
  • Michael Pollan ’76: author; books, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire (New York Times bestseller), Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, and A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder
  • Bret Easton Ellis ’86: author; books, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho
  • Jonathan Lethem ’86: author; books, You Don't Love Me Yet, The Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn (National Book Critics Circle Award), 2005 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner
  • Donna Tartt ’86: author; books, The Secret History, The Little Friend
  • Kiran Desai ’93: author; books, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (New York Times Notable Book) and Inheritance of Loss (winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize for fiction)

D=deceased