List of Swarthmore College people

The following is a list of notable people associated with Swarthmore College, a private, independent liberal arts college located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Since its founding in 1864, Swarthmore has graduated 156 classes of students. As of 2022, the College enrolls 1,689 students and has roughly 21,300 living alumni.

Academia

Department directors and chairs

Adrienne Asch – founding director of the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University
Anne Pippin Burnett (1946) – chair of the Department of Classical Languages at the University of Chicago
Marjorie Garber – director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University; Shakespeare scholar
Jeffrey Miron (1979) – chairman of the Department of Economics at Boston University; director of undergraduate studies at Harvard University; director of economic studies at the Cato Institute
David Page (1978) – professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; director of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Hans Stoll (1962) – professor of finance and director of the Financial Markets Research Center at the Owen Graduate School of Management
Robert Storr (1972) – dean of the Yale School of Art; curator
Christopher Udry (1981) – professor of economics at Northwestern University; co-founder and co-director of the Global Poverty Research Lab at the Kellogg School of Management

Professors

Ted Abel – professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth S. Anderson (1981) – professor of philosophy and women's studies at University of Michigan; MacArthur Fellow 2019
Margaret L. Anderson – historian and professor at University of California, Berkeley
Dave Bayer – professor of mathematics at Barnard College
Leo Braudy (1963) – professor of English and American literature at the University of Southern California
Christopher Chyba (1982) – professor of astrophysical sciences and international affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
Robert Cooter (1967) – professor at UC Berkeley School of Law
Christina Crosby – professor of English, feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University
Pamela Kyle Crossley – professor of history Dartmouth College
Paul Crowell – professor of physics at the University of Minnesota
Philip Curtin (1948) – distinguished professor of African history at Johns Hopkins University^[4]
Jonathan Dewald – professor of history at State University of New York at Buffalo^[5]
Cora Diamond – emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Virginia
Bruce T. Draine – professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University
Lara Estroff – materials scientist and professor at Cornell University
Sandra Faber (1966) – professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz^[6]
Andre Gunder Frank (1950) – professor of sociology and economics at the University of Chile; developer of dependency theory and world-systems theory^[7]
Sorelle Friedler (2004) – professor of computer science at Haverford College, former assistant director for data and democracy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Anna M. Gade (1989) – professor of religion, ethics and environment at University of Wisconsin
Paul M. Gaston (1952) – civil rights activist and professor of history at the University of Virginia
Robert P. George – professor at Princeton University
Neil Gershenfeld – associate professor of media arts and sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Allan Gibbard (1963) – professor of philosophy emeritus at the University of Michigan^[8]
Ruth Wilson Gilmore – professor of geography in at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
William H. Green – professor of chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michael Greenstone (1991) – professor of environmental economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, director of the Hamilton Project
Michael Hardt – professor of literature at Duke University; author of Empire
Gilbert Harman – professor of philosophy of Princeton University
Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. – law professor
Daniel R. Headrick – historian and professor at Roosevelt University, Tuskegee University, and Hawaii Pacific University
Arlie Russell Hochschild – sociologist, author, and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley^[9]
John Hopfield (1954) – professor of molecular biology at Princeton University; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024^[10]
Alexander Huk – professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin
Ray Jackendoff – professor of linguistics at Tufts University
Pieter Judson – history professor at the European University Institute
Pinar Karaca-Mandic (1998) – health economist and professor of management at Carlson School of Management
Peter J. Katzenstein (1967) – professor of International Studies at Cornell University; member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Joshua Landis (1979) – professor in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma
Thomas W. Laqueur – historian, sexologist, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (1966) – professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education
David Lewis (1962) – professor of philosophy at Princeton University, rated as one of the fifteen most important philosophers in the past 200 years^[11]^[12]
Linda Datcher Loury (1973) – social economist and professor at Tufts University
Robert MacPherson (1966) – mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University; recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics (1992)
Rogers McVaugh – research professor of botany and curator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; professor emeritus of botany in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Eben Moglen (1980) – professor of law and legal history at Columbia University
David Montgomery – professor of history at Yale University
John H. Morrow Jr. – professor of history at the University of Georgia
Alexander Nehamas – professor of humanities and comparative literature at Princeton University
Rebecca J. Nelson (1982) – professor of plant pathology at Cornell University
Barbara Partee – emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Edward C. Prescott (1962) – economist associated with Carnegie Mellon University and the Australian National University; winner of 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics^[13]
Robert D. Putnam – social capital theorist and Harvard University professor; author of Bowling Alone^[14]
Jane S. Richardson (1962) – Duke University biochemistry professor; inventor of Ribbon diagrams^[15]
William Rubinstein – professor of history at Deakin University and the University of Wales
Michael Schudson (1969) – professor of journalism at Columbia University
Nayan Shah – history professor at the University of California at San Diego
Herbert W. Smyth (1876) – professor of classics whose comprehensive grammar of Ancient Greek has become a standard reference
Karen B. Strier – professor of biological anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Daniel F. Styer (Ph.D. 1983) – professor of physics at Oberlin College
Joseph Takahashi – neuroscientist and professor at Northwestern University
Peter Temin (1959) – economic historian, professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter Unger – professor of philosophy at New York University
Elizabeth R. Varon – professor of history at University of Virginia
Emma Vyssotsky – astronomer at the University of Virginia
E. Roy Weintraub (1964) – professor of economics at Duke University
Martin Weitzman (1963) – professor of economics at Harvard University
Helen Magill White – first woman in the US to earn a Ph.D., professor at Evelyn College for Women, organizer of Howard Collegiate Institute
Gavin Wright (1965) – professor of economics at Stanford University
Miles Yu – professor of military history and modern China at the United States Naval Academy
Tara Zahra (1988) – history professor at the University of Chicago

Other

Albert Cook Myers – secretary of the Pennsylvania State Historical Commission
Brian Tomasik (2009) – researcher and ethicist with the Center on Long-Term Risk^[16]

Architecture

Margaret Helfand (non-degreed) – architect^[17]
Steven Izenour (non-degreed) – architect with Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates; co-author of Learning from Las Vegas^[18]
Marianne McKenna (1972) – architect^[19]

Art

Bruce Cratsley (1966) – photographer specialized in still lifes, portraits of friends, and gay life in New York City^[20]
Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2004) – visual artist^[21]
Alexandra Grant (1994) – visual artist
Richard Martin (1967) – art and fashion historian; former curator-in-chief of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Robert C. Turner (1969) – ceramic artist

Business and finance

Danna Azrieli – chair of Azrieli Group
Dean Baker (1981) – macroeconomist; co-founder and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
Bridget Boakye – Ghanaian entrepreneur
Paul Booth – labor leader, executive assistant to the president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Peter Cohan (1979) – president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates^[22]
John Diebold (1949) – founder of Diebold Group, Diebold, Inc., and the Diebold Institute for Public Policy
John D. Goldman (1971) – CEO of Richard N. Goldman & Co. Insurance Services
Rachel Jacobs (1997) – CEO of ApprenNet
William N. Kinnard (1947) – author, lecturer, and expert on the topic of real estate valuation
Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. (1946) – co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Eugene M. Lang (1938) – founder of REFAC Technology Development Corporation
Nick Martin (2004) – founder and CEO of TechChange
Thomas B. McCabe (1915) – chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; president of Scott Paper
Arthur S. Obermayer (1952) – founder of the Moleculon Research Corporation
Karen Pence (1992) – deputy associate director of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
William Poole (1959) – eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Thomas Rowe Price Jr. (1919) – founder of T. Rowe Price
Iqbal Quadir (1982) – founder of Gonofone and GrameenPhone
Sam Schulhofer-Wohl (1998) – senior vice president and director of financial policy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Kate Warne (1976) – principal and investment strategist with Edward Jones Investments
Robert Zoellick (1976) – former president of the World Bank^[23]

Entertainment

Lisa Albert (1981) – Emmy Award-winning television producer and writer, known for Mad Men, Beautiful People, Living Single, Becker, Murphy Brown, Major Dad
Mark Alburger (1979) – composer; founder, and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra; music director of Goat Hall Productions
Carol Black – Emmy Award-winning creator, writer, and producer of The Wonder Years and Ellen
Joseph Altuzarra (2005) – fashion designer, winner of the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award
Heywood Hale Broun – sportswriter and CBS Sports commentator^[24]
Al Carmines (1958) – composer of Off-Broadway musicals
Marshall Curry (1992) – Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker of Street Fight, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Racing Dreams, and Point and Shoot
David Dye (1972) – radio personality and host of the World Cafe
Steven Gilborn (1969) – actor
Andrew Rose Gregory (2004) – member of The Gregory Brothers^[25]
Evan Gregory (2001) – member of The Gregory Brothers^[25]
Grant S. Johnson (2014) – filmmaker
Nicholas Kazan (1969) – screenwriter
H. C. Robbins Landon (1946) – musicologist
Stephen Lang (1972) – Tony Award-nominated actor and playwright; known for Avatar, Gods and Generals, Gettysburg, Tombstone, and Terra Nova^[26]
Cynthia Ling Lee – dancer, choreographer, and dance scholar
Michael Lessac (1961) – theater, television, film director, and screenwriter.
David Linde (1982) – film producer; co-founder of Focus Features; co-chair of Universal Studios
Beth Littleford (non-degreed) – actress, former The Daily Show correspondent^[27]
Dana Lyons (1982) – independent singer/songwriter
François Picard (1988) – journalist who hosts The Debate and The World This Week^[28]^[29]
Dawn Porter (1988) – documentary filmmaker, director of Gideon's Army
Peter Schickele (1957) – Grammy Award-winning music composer and satirist, often under the comic pseudonym P. D. Q. Bach^[30]
Aaron Schwartz (1970) – actor and director
Tom Snyder (1972) – television producer and founder of Soup2Nuts animation studio
Darko Tresnjak (1988) – Tony Award-winning director
Michael J. Weithorn (1978) – television producer and writer for The King of Queens, Family Ties, Ned & Stacey, The Goldbergs
Jenny Yang – writer and comedian
Michał Zadara (1999) – theatre director

Law

Ellen Barry (1975) – prison reform advocate; founder of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the National Network for Women in Prison
Frank H. Easterbrook (1970) – judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Arianna Freeman (2001) – judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Eilene Galloway (1928) – space law researcher and editor; also taught at the college for two years^[31]^[32]
Wilma A. Lewis (1978) – former United States attorney for the District of Columbia
Lara Montecalvo (1996) – judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Alexander Mitchell Palmer (1891) – United States attorney general
Ellen Ash Peters (1951) – chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
Jed S. Rakoff (1964) – judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Charles F.C. Ruff (1960) – special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal, defender of Anita Hill during confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas, and counsel to president Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal
Mary M. Schroeder (1962) – chief judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Mark D. Schwartz (1975) – attorney in private practice; first vice president of Prudential-Bache Securities's public-finance department
Phil Weiser – Colorado attorney general
Jennifer P. Wilson (1997) – judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Literature and journalism

Eliot Asinof – writer, especially about baseball
Peter Bart – vice president and editor-in-chief of Variety
Lauren Belfer – author of novel City of Light
Peter Biskind – author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
David G. Bradley – chair of The Atlantic Monthly and National Journal Group, Inc.
Ben Brantley – chief theater critic of The New York Times
Christopher Castellani – author
Arthur Chu – columnist^[33]
Amy Fine Collins – author and contributor at Vanity Fair
Linda Grant DePauw – historian and author
Diane Di Prima – Beat Generation poet
Kurt Eichenwald – reporter with The New York Times and author of books on white-collar crime
Julie Falk (1998) – executive director of Bitch magazine
Jessica Fisher – poet, translator, critic; winner of the Rome Prize and Yale Series of Younger Poets
Michael Forster Rothbart (1994) – photojournalist
Jonathan Franzen (1981) – novelist, essayist, and author of The Corrections; winner of the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction^[34]^[35]
John Freeman (1996) – writer, literary critic, former editor of Granta, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf
Daisy Fried (1989) – poet
Gregory Gibson – author
Linda Gordon – historian and author
Justin Hall – pioneer blogger
Adam Haslett (1992) – short story writer and author; Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award finalist
John Russell Hayes (1888) – poet and librarian
Marni Hodgkin – children's book editor^[36]
Anick Jesdanun (1991) – technology reporter, editor, and the first Internet writer for the Associated Press^[37]
Josef Joffe – editor in chief of Die Zeit
Arnold Kling (1975) – founder and co-editor of EconLog
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt – journalist, book review and obituary editor for The New York Times
Cynthia Leive – editor in chief of Glamour
Helen Reimensnyder Martin – novelist
Daniel Menaker – fiction editor for The New Yorker and executive editor-in-chief of Random House
James A. Michener (1929) – novelist^[38]
Lulu Miller – writer, artist, and science reporter for National Public Radio
Victor Navasky – publisher and editorial director of The Nation and chair of Columbia Journalism Review
Yongsoo Park (1994) – novelist
Drew Pearson – journalist
Julie Phillips – journalist, writer, and biographer
Rowan Ricardo Phillips – poet and writer
Jonathan Raymond – novelist and short story writer
Rishi Reddi – short story writer
Rudy Rucker – cyberpunk novelist; winner of two Philip K. Dick Award
Norman Rush – novelist, winner of the 1991 National Book Award for Mating
William Saletan – author and chief national correspondent for Slate
Jonathan Shainin (2000) – head of opinion at The Guardian
Anna Shechtman – journalist and crossword compiler
Kenneth Turan (1967) – film critic for the Los Angeles Times^[39]
Mark Vonnegut – physician and author of the memoir of schizophrenia, The Eden Express
Nora Waln – journalist and memoirist on China and Nazi Germany
Paul Williams (1969) – founder and publisher of Crawdaddy!
Mary Wiltenburg – journalist
Valerie Worth – poet and writer

Medicine

Margaret Allen – first female heart transplant surgeon^[40]
Marcella Nunez-Smith – physician and co-chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board
Frank Oski – director of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Anne Schuchat – acting director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control
Howard Martin Temin (1955) – recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975

Philanthropy and activism

M. Evelyn Killen – president of Delaware State Woman's Christian Temperance Union^[41]
Eugene M. Lang – founder of the I Have A Dream Foundation
Alice Paul (1905) – women's suffrage leader, National Woman's Party founder, and author of first Equal Rights Amendment proposal^[42]
Micah White – creator of Occupy Wall Street
Cathy Wilkerson – activist and former member of the Weather Underground
Carl Wittman – LGBT rights activist and member of the national council of Students for a Democratic Society
Molly Yard – former president of the National Organization for Women

Politics

Samuel Assefa – Ethiopian ambassador to the United States
Erica Barks-Ruggles – U.S. ambassador to Rwanda
Peter Berkowitz – director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State
William H. Brown, Jr. – Parliamentarian of the United States House of Representatives
Armond Budish – Ohio House of Representatives
Dennis Cheng (2001) – national finance director of the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton
David L. Cohen (1977) – U.S. ambassador to Canada^[43]
Scott Cowger – Maine House of Representatives and Maine Senate
Peter Deutsch – United States House of Representatives
Michael Dukakis – governor of Massachusetts; Democratic nominee in the 1988 presidential election^[44]
Christiana Figueres (1979) – Costa Rican diplomat, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change^[45]
Diana Furchtgott-Roth (1979) – former chief economist of the United States Department of Labor, former chief of staff of the Council of Economic Advisers, senior fellow at Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Josh Green (1992) – governor of Hawaii and lieutenant governor of Hawaii^[46]
Kevin Hassett (1984) – chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
Leon Henderson – administrator of the Office of Price Administration^[47]
Rush Holt Jr. – United States House of Representatives
James Hormel – former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg
John Brady Kiesling – writer, former U.S. diplomat
Carl Levin (1956) – United States Senate^[48]
Mary B. Newman – member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Amos J. Peaslee – U.S. ambassador to Australia
Antoinette Sayeh – minister of Finance, Liberia
William C. Sproul – governor of Pennsylvania
Chris Van Hollen – United States senator and United States House of Representatives^[49]
James M. Wilson Jr. – U.S. assistant secretary of state

Psychology

Bird Thomas Baldwin – psychologist; pioneer in child development
Adele Diamond – pioneer in developmental cognitive neuroscience
Ward Edwards – psychologist; pioneer in decision analysis
Eugene Galanter – pioneer in cognitive psychology and psychometrics
Carol Gilligan (1958) – feminist, ethicist, and psychologist^[50]
Rachel Hare-Mustin – feminist psychologist
Isabel Briggs Myers (1919) – co-creator of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator assessment^[51]
Robert Rescorla – co-creator of the Rescorla-Wagner model

Science and technology

Christian B. Anfinsen (1937) – recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972^[52]
Frank Hastings Griffin (1910) – chemist who invented rayon
Tyler Lyson (2006) – curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Holbrook Mann MacNeille – mathematician; scientific director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development; chief of the fundamental research branch of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
John C. Mather (1968) – senior astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center; recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics^[53]
Newton Morton – population geneticist, one of the founders of the field of genetic epidemiology
Ted Nelson (1959) – pioneer of information technology, computer visionary who coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia".^[54]
G. Raymond Rettew – chemist; pioneered mass production of penicillin during World War II
Sally Ride (non-graduate) – NASA astronaut and physicist, first American woman in space^[55]
Nancy Roman (1946) – NASA's first chief of astronomy in the Office of Space Science, considered the "mother of the Hubble Space Telescope"^[56]^[57]
Maxine Frank Singer – biochemist and president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
Charlotte Moore Sitterly (1920) – astronomer who identified chemical elements in the sun using spectroscopy^[58]
Peter J. Weinberger (1964) – computer scientist; former head of CS research at Bell Labs; inventor of the AWK programming language^[59]

Sports

Ed Ayres (1963) – ultramarathon runner; winner of JFK 50 Mile; editor and publisher of Running Times magazine
Robin Carpenter (2014) – professional road cyclist
Ben Clime – professional football player
Eran Ganot – college basketball head coach at the University of Hawaii
Dick Hall – former Major League Baseball pitcher; appeared in three World Series for the Baltimore Orioles
Morgan Langley – professional soccer player with the Philadelphia Union
Ladule Lako LoSarah – international footballer for the Republic of South Sudan
Lee MacPhail (1939) – baseball executive, former president of American League; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame^[26]
Tiny Maxwell – College Football Hall of Fame player and referee
Curly Ogden – professional baseball pitcher
Jack Ogden – professional baseball player

Swarthmore faculty and staff

As of spring 2022, Swarthmore employs nearly 200 faculty members.

Presidents of Swarthmore College

Edward Parrish, 1865–1871
Edward Hicks Magill, 1871–1889
William Hyde Appleton, 1889–1891
Charles De Garmo, 1891–1898
William W. Birdsall, 1898–1902
Joseph Swain, 1902–1921
Frank Aydelotte, 1921–1940
John W. Nason, 1940–1953
Courtney C. Smith, 1953–1969
Robert D. Cross, 1969–1971
Theodore W. Friend, 1973–1982
David W. Fraser, 1982–1991
Alfred H. Bloom, 1991–2009
Rebecca Chopp, 2009–2014
Valerie Smith, 2015–2027^[a]

Notes:

[a]
Val Smith announced in February of 2026 that she would step down as president of Swarthmore, effective June 2027.^[60]

Current faculty

Alan Baker, philosophy
Amanda Bayer, economics
Rodney Evans, film and media studies
Theodore B. Fernald, linguistics
K. David Harrison, linguistics and cognitive science
Aimee Johnson, mathematics and statistics
Donna Jo Napoli, linguistics
Chinelo Okparanta, English literature
Ron Tarver, art and art history
Mark I. Wallace, religion, environmental studies

Former faculty

Nathalie Anderson, English literature
Solomon Asch, psychology^[61]
W. H. Auden, poet, literature; professor from 1942 to 1945
Monroe Beardsley, philosopher of art^[62]
Brand Blanshard, philosophy
Daniel J. Boorstin, history
Richard Brandt, philosophy
Ralph Bunche, political science, diplomat, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Joseph Church, music
Bruce Cumings, international relations
James Freeman, music
Robert Gallucci
Kenneth Gergen, psychology
Scott F. Gilbert, biology
Lila R. Gleitman, linguistics
Harold Clarke Goddard, English and Shakespeare studies
Frank Hastings Griffin, chemistry
Rush D. Holt, Jr., physics
Raymond F. Hopkins, political science
Philip Jefferson, economics
Jennie Keith, anthropology^[63]
Nannerl O. Keohane, political science
Robert Keohane, political science
Wolfgang Köhler, psychology^[61]
James Kurth, political science, editor of Orbis
Andrea Lee, English literature
Joseph Leidy, natural history
Gerald Levinson, music
George W. Lewis, engineering
Kenneth Lieberthal, political science
James Magruder, theatre
Michael Marissen, music
Louis Massiah, black studies, film, and media studies
Ann McNamee, music
Judith Moffett, English
Jonathan D. Moreno
Scott Nearing, economics
Harold E. Pagliaro, English
Frederic Pryor, economics
Maria L. Sanford, history
Barry Schwartz, professor of psychology
Wolfgang F. Stolper, economics
Judith G. Voet, chemistry and biochemistry
Hans Wallach, psychology
Kenneth Waltz, political science
Clair Wilcox, economics