Prominent Barnard Alumnae [last updated 5/20/2014]

Science
Jacqueline Barton (1974) chemistry
Marian Chertow, environmental science
Evelyn Hu (1969), applied physicist (NAS)
Ida Rolf, biochemist
Joan Birman (1948), mathematician

Medicine
Helen M. Ranney (1941)
Helene D. Gayle

Law
Miriam Cedarbaum (1952)
Helene Kaplan (Finkelstein]
Judith Kaye (1958)
Anna Diggs Taylor (1954), black Michigan federal judge
Nancy Gertner (1967), Mass. federal judge
Wilma B. Liebman (1971) NLRB

Politics
Juliet Stuart Poyntz (1907), Communist
Flora Wovschin (1942), Communist
Judith Coplon (1943), Communist
Marian Davis Berdeci (1943?), Communist
Helen Gahagan (1924), California congresswoman
Jeanne Kirkpatrick (1948), neo-conservative

Poets
Helen Hoyt (1907?)
Leonie Adams (1923)
Babette Deutsch (1917)
June Jordan (1957)

• Writers
  Alice Duer Miller (1899)
  Mary Antin (1902), The Promised Land (1912)
  Belva Plain (1939)
  Patricia Highsmith
  Francine du Plexxis Gray (1952)
  Erica Jong [nee Mann] (1963), The Fear of Flying (1973)
  Thulani Davis (1970)
  [Paulette L. Williams] Ntozaki Shange (1970)
  Mary Gordon (1970)Architects
  Norma Merrick Sklarek (1950), first black women to be licensed architect
  Christine Wang (1989)

 

Journalists
Freda Kirchwey (1914)
Anna Quindlen (1974)
Natalie Angier (1978)
Judith Miller (1969)
Maria Hinojosa
Susan Stamberg (1959)

Musicians
Laurie Anderson (1969)
Suzanne Vega (1981)

Actresses
Jane Wyatt
Lee Remick
Cynthia Nixon (1988)

 

Academics:
Anthropologists
Margaret Mead (1923)
Elsie Clews Parsons (1896)
Helen Perlstein Pollard (1967)

Art Historians
Barbara Novak
Esther Pasztory

Economists
Anna Jacobson Schwartz (1933)

Political Scientists
Jean Kirkpatrick (1948)

Historians
Annette K. Baxter (1947)
Linda Kerber (1960)
Mary Jo Kline (1961)
Dina Coppelman (1975)
Ruth Schwartz Cohan (1961)
Aida Donald (1952)
Firth Haring Fabend (1969)
Paula Fass (1969)
Estelle Freedman (1969)
Louise L. Stevenson (1970)
Darlene Levy
Lara Vapnick (1990)

• Rebecca Goldstein (1972), philosopher, biographer, and novelist
• Karla Jay (1968), pioneer of lesbian and gay studies
• Janna Levin (B.A. Barnard College, 1988), cosmologist
• Margaret Mead (1923), anthropologist
• Louise Rosenblatt (1920s), influential literary theorist and educator
• Anna Schwartz (1933), economist
• Vivian Sobchack (1961), cultural critic
• Merryl Tisch, educator, Chancellor, New York State Board of Regents
• Beatrice Warde (1920s), calligrapher, librarian, researcher on type matters and influence upon 20th century typography^[4]
• Rita Gunther McGrath (1981) Business Book author and Professor at Columbia Business School

 

• 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
• Sasha Soreff (1994), choreographer
• Chelsea Peretti (2000), actress, writer for TV show Parks and Recreation
• Christy Carlson Romano (2006), actress
• Greta Gerwig (2006), actress
• Clara Bryant (2007), actress
• Jaime Gleicher, reality star
• Zuzanna Szadkowski, actress, played Dorota on TV Show Gossip Girl

Artists

• Sarah Charlesworth (1969), photographer and conceptual artist
• Josephine Paddock, painter
• Maud Morgan, contemporary artist

Athletes

• Gloria Callen (1946), swimmer^[5]
• Robin Wagner (1980), figure-skating coach
• Stacey Borgman (1993), member of crew team for the United States at the 2004 Olympics^[6]
• Erinn Smart (2001), fencer for the United States at the 2004 Olympics,^[7] silver medalist in team foil fencing at the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Businesswomen

• Joan Whitney Payson, co-founder and majority of owner of the New York Mets^[8]
• Martha Stewart (1964), business magnate, entrepreneur, homemaking advocate
• Alexis Stewart (1987), daughter of Martha Stewart
• Liz Neumark (1977), founder and CEO of New York catering company Great Performances.^[9]

Journalists

• Freda Kirchwey (1915), journalist, editor and publisher of The Nation
• Liz Clarke (1983), journalist for The Washington Post, co-host of The Tony Kornheiser Show
• Herawati Diah (1941), Indonesian journalist
• Nonnie Moore (c. 1946), fashion editor at Mademoiselle, Harper’s Bazaar and GQ.^[10]
• 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^[11]
• 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 for The New York Post and The New York Daily News, founder of Barncat Publishing Inc., and author whose books include a memoir of surviving breast cancer
• Lis Wiehl (1983), legal analyst for Fox News
• Maria Hinojosa (1984), correspondent for CNN, NOW on PBS, and host of NPR‘s Latino USA

Musicians, singers, and composers

• Jeanine Tesori (1983), Broadway composer
• Louise Post, lead singer and guitarist of alternative rock band Veruca Salt
• David Macklovitch, lead singer and guitarist of Canadian electrofunk duo Chromeo^[12]

 

Political and judicial figures

• Jessie Wallace Hughan (1898, Phi Beta Kappa), United States Senate candidate, author, teacher, founder of Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity^[13]
• Miriam Hughes, United States Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia
• Hope Portocarrero, first lady of Nicaragua, the wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Writers

• Alice Duer Miller (1899), writer and advisory editor of The New Yorker
• Helen Hoyt (1900s), poet
• Mary Antin (1902), author of the immigrant experience
• Babette Deutsch (1917), author, poet, translator and critic
• Faith McNulty (1920s, attended one year), writer
• Léonie Adams (1923), poet
• Charlotte Armstrong (1925), writer
• Zora Neale Hurston (1928), Harlem Renaissance writer
• Elizabeth Janeway (1935), author and critic
• Joan Kahn (late 1930s), mystery editor and anthologist; also novelist and children’s writer
• Belva Plain (1939), writer
• Patricia Highsmith (1940), author of The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Yelena Albala (1945), poet^[14][15]
• Francine du Plessix Gray (1952), writer
• Joyce Johnson (1955), writer
• June Jordan (1955), writer and activist
• Erica Jong (1963), writer
• Monique Raphel High (1969), novelist
• Hallie Ephron (1969), novelist
• Ntozake Shange (1970), playwright
• Mary Gordon (1971), writer
• Sigrid Nunez (1972), novelist
• Jane Leavy (1974), sports biographer
• Jami Bernard (1978), writer and film critic
• Lionel Shriver(1978), novelist and 2005 Orange Prize winner
• Tory Dent (1981), poet and HIV/AIDS activist
• Cristina Garcia (1983), author of Dreaming in Cuban
• Alexa Junge (1984), writer for The West Wing and Friends
• 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
• Rachel Cohn (1989), author of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Gingerbread
• Edwidge Danticat (1990), writer
• Galaxy Craze (1993), novelist
• Sasha Cagen (1996), writer
• Alana Newhouse (1997) writer and editor of Tablet Magazine
• Chelsea Peretti (2000), writer and comedian^[16]
• Marisha Pessl (2000), author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
• Nadine Haobsh (2002), blogger and author of Beauty Confidential and Confessions of a Beauty Addict
• Kait Kerrigan (2003), playwright
• Joan Abelove, writer
• Fatima Bhutto, Pakistani poet and writer
• Hortense Calisher, writer
• Cassandra Clare, author of The Mortal Instruments
• Diana Chang, pioneering Asian-American novelist
• Elise Cowen, poet of the Beat Generation
• Gina Gionfriddo, playwright
• Indrani Aikath Gyaltsen, writer
• Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, screenwriter
• Diana Muir writer and historian
• Alice Notley, poet
• Helena Percas de Ponseti, writer, essayist, scholar, and professor
• Yael Lewin (2011), writer, dancer, editor, choreographer^[17]
• Edie Parker, author
• Dean Spade, writer, activist, lawyer, Assistant Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law
• Daphne Merkin, American literary critic, essayist, and novelist

Last updated: January 9, 2016
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