The list of Hunter College people includes notable graduates, professors and other people affiliated with Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Alumni Nobel laureates Gertrude B. Elion – 1988, Medicine Rosalyn Sussman Yalow – 1977, Medicine

Pulitzer Prize winners Holland Cotter – art critic Emily Genauer – art critic Ada Louise Huxtable – architecture critic Liu Heung Shing – photographer James Wright – poet

National Medal of Science winners Mildred Cohn – 1982, Biological Sciences Mildred Dresselhaus – Engineering Sciences Gertrude B. Elion

Presidential Medal of Freedom winners Antonia Pantoja – activist

Science, technology, medicine, and mathematics Patricia Bath – ophthalmologist Marjorie Clarke – environmental scientist Mildred Cohn – National Medal of Science winner Mary P. Dolciani – mathematician Madeline Early – mathematician and university professor Elsie Giorgi – physician Erich Jarvis – neurologist Esther Lederberg – pioneer of bacterial genetics Lena Levine – psychiatrist, gynecologist, pioneer of marriage counseling and birth control Celia Maxwell – infectious disease physician and academic administrator Beatrice Mintz – pioneer of mammalian transgenesis Arlie Petters – pioneer of gravitational lensing Mina Rees – mathematician, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Ruth Teitelbaum – ENIAC programmer Rosalyn Sussman Yalow – Nobel Prize winner in Medicine

Business and economics Gerard Cafesjian – owner of West Publishing Corporation (now part of Thomson Corporation) Alan S. Chartock – president and CEO of WAMC Leon Cooperman – billionaire hedge fund manager Robert A. Daly – CEO of Warner Bros. and the Los Angeles Dodgers Mollie Orshansky – developer of the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds, the main poverty measure in the US Sylvia Field Porter – economist and journalist Melvin T. Tukman – co-founder and president of Tukman Grossman Capital Management, an investment firm

Law and politics

Members of Congress Bella Abzug – congresswoman, 1971–1977 Eliot L. Engel – congressman, 1989–present Edna F. Kelly – congresswoman, 1949–1969

State figures Teresa Patterson Hughes – California state senator Roger Manno – Maryland House of Delegates

City figures Tony Avella – New York City councilman, 2009 candidate for mayor Adolfo Carrión Jr. – Bronx borough president Tom Murphy – mayor of Pittsburgh John Timoney – Miami chief of police

Lawyers Floria Lasky – prominent theater lawyer Soia Mentschikoff – chief developer of the Uniform Commercial Code and first woman to teach at Harvard Law School

Activists Norma Becker – anti-war activist Madeleine Cosman – health care and immigration advocate Alexander Dvorkin – anti-cult activist Theodora Lacey – civil rights activist Gertrude Lane – trade unionist Audre Lorde – activist, writer, poet Pauli Murray – activist, lawyer, priest, and author Antonia Pantoja – activist, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Mamphela Ramphele – Rockefeller Foundation trustee, anti-apartheid activist Sandra Schnur – pioneer of disability rights Judith Vladeck – labor lawyer and civil rights advocate

Journalism and news Mohamad Bazzi – journalist Richard Cohen – Washington Post columnist Corine Hegland – journalist Jack Newfield – muckraking journalist Shimon Prokupecz – CNN reporter Daniel Seaman – Israeli politician; expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict

Literature Grace Andreacchi – writer Maurice Berger – cultural critic Peter Carey – writer Colin Channer – writer Helen Gray Cone – poet Lucy Dawidowicz – author Kaitlyn Greenidge – writer Martin Greif – writer, publisher Evan Hunter – author and screenwriter Ada Louise Huxtable – writer, Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic Colette Inez – poet, academic Swati Khurana – writer Malka Lee – poet Ricky Anne Loew-Beer – author, artist and photographer (married to fashion designer Ralph Lauren) Audre Lorde – poet, essayist Paule Marshall – author, MacArthur Fellow "genius grant," Dos Passos Prize for Literature Barbara McMartin – environmental writer Melissa Plaut – writer Sylvia Field Porter – economist, journalist Sonia Sanchez – poet Augusta Huiell Seaman – writer Sadia Shephard – writer Gary Shteyngart – author René Taupin – writer Ned Vizzini – writer Joan Wolf – writer of romance novels James Wright – poet

Film, theater, and television Ellen Barkin – actress Ed Burns – actor, director Eva Condon – Broadway actress Judith Crist – film critic Ruby Dee – actress Vin Diesel – actor Hugh Downs – broadcaster, 20/20 and The Today Show anchor Lynnie Godfrey – actress, singer, director Tina Howe – Tony-nominated playwright Richard Jeni – comedian Suzanne Kaaren – actress Ephraim Katz – author of The Film Encyclopedia Evelyn Lear – opera singer Natasha Leggero – actress and comic Maitland McDonagh – film critic Daniel Mulloy – screenwriter and film director Barbara Myers – former child model and actress Julianne Nicholson – actress Rhea Perlman – actress Dascha Polanco – actress Florence Ravenel – actress"Rialto Players to Offer Mystery Play; Florence Ravenel". The Journal Times. September 29, 1928. p. 8. Retrieved May 4, 2024. Regina Resnik – opera singer Esther Rolle – actress Al Santos – actor Elliot Tiber – screenwriter who "saved" Woodstock Festival Dreya Weber – producer

Art, architecture, and engineering Robert Altman – Rolling Stone photojournalist Firelei Báez – artist Robert Barry - artist Maurice Berger – art critic and historian Jack Coggins – illustrator Francisco Costa – creative director of Calvin Klein Collection Jules de Balincourt – artist Jacqueline Donachie – artist Mildred Dresselhaus – engineer Echo Eggebrecht – painter Arthur Elgort – photographer for Vogue magazine Gabriele Evertz – abstract artist Denise Green – painter Ada Louise Huxtable – architecture critic Mel Kendrick – artist Kathleen Kucka – painter Terrance Lindall – artist Robert Morris – sculptor Jill Nathanson – painter Doug Ohlson – abstract artistSmith, Roberta. "Doug Ohlson, Painter of Vivid Abstracts, Dies at 73", The New York Times, July 23, 2010. Accessed July 24, 2010. Lucy Olcott – art historian and dealer Danielle Orchard – painter Claudia Peña Salinas (MFA 2009) – mixed media artist Mitchell Silver – urban planner Jeff Sonhouse (MFA 2001) – painter Richard Tinkler – abstract artist Louis A. Waldman – art historian Dan Walsh – painter Brian Wood – visual artist

Music Ashley Choi – lead singer of the band Ladies' Code David Sampson – composer

Military Julia Jeter Cleckley – first African-American female line officer to be promoted to brigadier general in the Army National Guard Thomas P. Noonan, Jr. – Medal of Honor recipient

Education Robert Davila – ninth president of Gallaudet University Howard McParlin Davis – prominent art history professor John Taylor Gatto – author of seminal books on education Haskel Greenfield – archaeologist at University of Manitoba Francis Kilcoyne (died 1985) – president of Brooklyn College Soia Mentschikoff – chief developer of the Uniform Commercial Code and first woman to teach at Harvard University Burton Pike – professor emeritus, Comparative Literature, CUNY Graduate Center Jennifer Raab – president of Hunter College Henning Rübsam – choreographer, dance historian at The Juilliard School Kay Toliver – mathematics educator

Fictional alumni Chad Kroski from advertising campaign Harry "Parry" Sagan from The Fisher King Daniel Bae from The Sun Is Also a Star Marjorie Morningstar from the novel Marjorie Morningstar

Non-graduating attendees Harry Connick, Jr – musician Bobby Darin – musician Nikolai Fraiture – bassist, The Strokes April Lee Hernández – actress Mitski – musician Grace Paley – writer Nick Valensi – guitarist, The Strokes

Faculty

Meena Alexander – poet and author James Aronson – journalist, founder of the National Guardian John Avlon – author, speech writer for Rudy Giuliani Jacqueline Barton – chemist William Baziotes – painter Harry Binswanger – philosopher Gertrude Blanch – pioneer of numerical analysis and computation Robert A. Brady – economist José Ferrer Canales – writer, activist Rosario Candela – influential architect Peter Carey – novelist Tina Chang – poet John Henrik Clarke – historian Buck Clayton – musician Daniel I. A. Cohen – mathematician and computer scientist Janet Cox-Rearick – art historian Noah Creshevsky – composer Susan Crile – painter Emil Draitser – author Cora Du Bois – cultural anthropologist Stuart Ewen Norman Finkelstein – political scientist Mary Flanagan Helen Frankenthaler – artist Bertram Myron Gross – author of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act John Hollander – poet, literary critic Seymour Itzkoff – researcher George E. Kimball – pioneer of operations research algorithms Dong Kingman – artist Lyman Kipp – sculptor Rosalind E. Krauss – art critic Reiner Leist – photographer Nancy Milford – author Paul Moravec – composer Robert Motherwell – artist Leonard Peikoff – philosopher, founder of the Ayn Rand Institute Mina Rees – mathematician Richard Reeves – political author Ruth Sager – geneticist Carolee Schneemann – artist Blake Schwarzenbach – musician Michael Shernoff – specialist in gay community mental health Tony Smith – sculptor Harry Edward Stinson – sculptor John Kennedy Toole – author Lionel Trilling – literary critic Nydia Velázquez – U.S. congresswoman, New York, 1993–present Alice von Hildebrand – philosopher and author Robert C. Weaver – first U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Blanche Colton Williams, professor of English literature and head of the English department

Administration David A. Caputo – president of Hunter College; president of Pace University Paul LeClerc – president of Hunter College; president and CEO of New York Public Library Michael P. Riccards – political scientist; author; executive director of the Hall Institute for Public Policy Donna Shalala – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; 10th president of Hunter College; president of University of Miami

References