Notable Alumni

Deborah Bial ’87, education strategist; founder and president, Posse Foundation (MacArthur Fellow)

Josh Block ’95, CEO and president, The Israel Project

Alisa Gravitz ’77, president and CEO, Green America

Devika Mahadevan ’00, head, strategy and communication, Mann Deshi Foundation; director, Mumbai Mobile Creches

Rakesh Rajani ’89, director of democratic participation and governance, Ford Foundation

Julieanna Richardson ’76, H’16, founder, The HistoryMakers

Jay Ruderman ’88, president, Ruderman Family Foundation

Bobby Sager ’76, philanthropist

Sam Vaghar ’08, executive director and co-founder, Millennium Campus Network

Janice Burgess ’74, creator and executive producer, “The Backyardigans”

David Crane ’79 and Marta Kauffman ’78, co-creators, “Friends”

Tony Goldwyn ’82, film and TV actor and director (“Scandal,” “Ghost”)

Josh Gondelman ’07, comedian and writer, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

Debra Granik ’85, film director and screenwriter (“Winter’s Bone,” “Down to the Bone”)

Bonita Hamilton, MFA’04, actress (“Lion King”)

Michael Kaiser ’75, founder and co-chair, IMG Artists; president emeritus, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Myq Kaplan ’00, comedian

Jonathan Landau ’68, music producer and manager for Bruce Springsteen

Gary Lassin ’77, founder, Stoogeum (Three Stooges museum)

Debra Messing ’90, Emmy Award-winning actor (“Will & Grace,” “Mysteries of Laura,” “Smash”)

Anand Patwardhan ’72, documentary filmmaker

Theresa Rebeck, MA’83, MFA’86, PhD’89, Broadway playwright

Rosemary Rodriguez ’83, TV director (“Law & Order,” “The Good Wife”)

Kimerly Rorschach ’78, director and CEO, Seattle Art Museum

Michael Sugar ’95, movie producer (“Spotlight,” “Collateral Beauty,” “The Fifth Estate”)

Gary Tinterow ’76, director, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Adam Weinberg ’77, Alice Pratt Brown Director, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Mitch Albom ’79, “Tuesdays With Morrie,” “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”

Stacey Ballis ’92, “Inappropriate Men,” “Sleeping Over,” “Room for Improvement”

Edward Dolnick ’74, “The Clockwork Universe,” “The Forger's Spell,” “The Rescue Artist”

Ha Jin, MA’89, PhD’93, “Waiting,” “War Trash,” “Nanjing Requiem”

Jesse Kellerman, MFA’03, “Sunstroke,” “The Genius,” “Trouble,” “The Executor”

Stephen J. Cloobeck ’83, founder and former chairman and CEO, Diamond Resorts International; former chairman of the board of Brand USA

Jonathan Davis ’75, CEO and founder, The Davis Companies

Amy Kessler ’89, MA’90, senior vice president and head of longevity risk transfer, Prudential

Brian Lash ’78, founder, Target Logistics

Olaf Olafsson ’85, executive vice president of international and corporate strategy, Time Warner

Simon Sinek ’95, business consultant and author (“Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”)

Sam Sisakhti, MA’07, founder and CEO, UsTrendy

Perry Traquina ’78, former CEO, Wellington Management investment firm

Tom Watanabe ’73, former president/CEO, Nikken Global

Lan Xue ’90, MA’91, founder, Hong Kong-based hedge fund

Arthur Caplan ’71, Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics, NYU School of Medicine

Angela Davis ’65, distinguished professor emerita in the history of consciousness and feminist studies departments, University of California, Santa Cruz; political and social activist

Deborah Lipstadt, MA’72, PhD’76, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University (profiled in movie “Denial”)

Michael Sandel ’75, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory, Harvard University

Jonathan Sarna ’75, MA’75, University Professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

Judith Shapiro ’63, former president, Barnard College

Fernando Torres-Gil, Heller MSW’72, Heller PhD’76, professor and director of Center for Policy Research on Aging, University of California, Los Angeles

Julian Zelizer ’91, professor of history and public affairs, Princeton University; political commentator

Robert Zimmer ’68, president, University of Chicago

Geir Haarde ’73, Iceland’s U.S. ambassador; former prime minister

Michael Horowitz ’84, inspector general, U.S. Department of Justice

Lisa Kubiske ’75, deputy assistant secretary for international finance and development, U.S. Department of State

Haile Menkerios ’70, former head of United Nations Office to the African Union and special representative to the African Union

Dimitrij Rupel, PhD’76, former minister of foreign affairs, Slovenia

Daniel Shapiro ’91, former U.S. ambassador to Israel

Thomas Friedman ’75, foreign affairs columnist, The New York Times (three-time Pulitzer Prize winner), and author (“The World Is Flat,” “Flat, Hot and Crowded”)

Walt Mossberg ’69, co-founder and editor-at-large, Recode (Loeb award winner)

Guy Raz ’96, host and editorial director of “TED Radio Hour,” “How I Built This” and “Wow in the World,” National Public Radio

Greg Zuckerman ’88, special writer, Wall Street Journal, and author (“The Frackers,” “The Greatest Trade Ever”)

Paul Anastas, MA’87, PhD’89, Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment; professor of epidemiology; and director, Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, Yale University

Debbie Berebichez ’96, physicist, STEM advocate

Bonnie Berger ’83, Simons Professor of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; first woman in MIT math department to earn tenure

Adam Cheyer ’88, co-founder, Siri voice-activated personal assistant

Susan Band Horowitz, PhD’63, co-inventor of cancer-fighting drug Taxol

Leslie Lamport, MA’71, PhD’72, principal researcher, Microsoft, and developer of LaTeX (Turing Award winner)

Roderick MacKinnon ’78, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor, The Rockefeller University (Nobel laureate)

Eve Marder ’69, Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Neuroscience, Brandeis; member of advisory board for President Barack Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative

Edward Witten ’71, Charles Simonyi Professor of Mathematical Physics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University (Fields Medalist)

Nelson Figueroa ’98, former pitcher, Major League Baseball; TV analyst, SNY

Jeffrey Lurie, PhD’87, owner, Philadelphia Eagles

Tim Morehouse ’00, Olympic medal-winning fencer