List of Barnard College people

Notable alumnae

Academics and scientists

• Anne Anastasi, American psychologist known for her pioneering development of psychometrics, former president of American Psychological Association, recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Natalie Angier, author, science journalist for The New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
• Nina Ansary, historian, author, one of the six UN Women Champions for Innovation, daughter of Iranian diplomat and philanthropist Hushang Ansary
• Jacqueline Barton, Caltech chemist and MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant" winner
• Helen M. Berman, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University
• Joan Birman, mathematician and winner of the Chauvenet Prize
• Hazel Bishop, chemist and inventor of innovative cosmetics
• Hendrika B. Cantwell, clinical professor of pediatrics, advocate for abused and neglected children
• Marian Chertow, academic specializing in environmental resource management
• Frances Gardiner Davenport, historian
• Stacey D'Erasmo, American author and critic, professor at Fordham University
• Ingrith Johnson Deyrup-Olsen, American zoologist, daughter of The New School founder and first president Alvin Saunders Johnson
• Mabel Smith Douglass, educator and namesake of Douglass Residential College of Rutgers University
• Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University
• Jessica Einhorn, former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
• Firth Haring Fabend, novelist and historian
• Jessica Garretson Finch, author, suffragette, founding President of Finch College
• Ellen V. Futter, President of Barnard College and the American Museum of Natural History
• Lynn Garafola, dance historian
• Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College and delegate to the charter conference of the United Nations in 1945
• Karen Goldberg, Vagelos Professor of Energy Research at University of Pennsylvania
• Nieca Goldberg, doctor at the NYU Langone Medical Center
• Rebecca Goldstein, philosopher, biographer, and novelist
• Monica Green, medieval historian and Professor of History at Arizona State University
• Maxine Greene, educator, philosopher, activist; past president of the American Educational Research Association
• Patricia Greenspan, professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park
• Miriam Griffin, classical scholar at Somerville College, Oxford
• Evelyn Byrd Harrison, classical scholar, archaeologist, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Louise Holland, academic, philologist and archaeologist
• Judith Herzfeld, Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at Brandeis University
• Evelyn Hu, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Harvard University
• Jean Blackwell Hutson, librarian, archivist, chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
• Karla Jay, pioneer of lesbian and gay studies
• Mirra Komarovsky, sociologist; pioneer in the sociology of gender
• Mabel Lang, archeologist and professor at Bryn Mawr College
• Linda Laubenstein, MD, HIV/AIDS researcher
• Sylvia Lavin, professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture
• Janna Levin, cosmologist and Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College
• Susan Mailer, American psychoanalyst, writer, and academic, daughter of novelist Norman Mailer
• Joyce Lee Malcolm, professor at Antonin Scalia Law School
• Rita Gunther McGrath, business book author; Professor at Columbia Business School
• Eileen McNamara, professor of journalism at Brandeis University; formerly Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of The Boston Globe
• Margaret Mead, anthropologist
• Barbara Stoler Miller, scholar of Sanskrit literature known for the translation of the Bhagavad Gita
• Nancy K. Miller, American literary scholar, feminist theorist and memoirist, professor at Graduate Center, CUNY
• Gertrude Neumark, American physicist and former professor of Columbia University
• Aihwa Ong, American anthropologist and professor at University of California, Berkeley and 2001 MacArthur Fellow
• Elsie Clews Parsons, first woman elected President of the American Anthropological Association
• Esther Pasztory, scholar of Pre-Columbian Art at Columbia University
• Helen Perlstein Pollard, archaeologist, ethnologist, Mesoamericanist scholar, professor of anthropology at MSU
• Helen Ranney, first woman to lead a university department of medicine in the U.S., be president of the Association of American Physicians, or serve as a Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration
• Amy Richards, American historian and feminist activist
• Ida Rolf, biochemist, founder of Rolfing Structural Integration
• Ora Mendelsohn Rosen, cell biology researcher
• Louise Rosenblatt, influential literary theorist and educator
• Myriam Sarachik, American physicist, professor at the City College of New York and recipient of the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize in 2005
• Anna Schwartz, economist
• Shuly Rubin Schwartz, first female chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
• Vivian Sobchack, cultural critic
• Maya Soetoro-Ng, educator; half-sister of President Barack Obama
• Barbara Lerner Spectre, academic and scholar on Jewish studies
• Amy Sueyoshi, historian and academic
• Abigail Thernstrom, American political scientist and conservative scholar on race relations, voting rights and education who served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights
• Merryl Tisch, educator, Chancellor, New York State Board of Regents; wife of James S. Tisch, heir to the Loews Corporation
• Lila Wallis, physician, former president of the American Medical Women's Association and pioneer in women's health
• Beatrice Warde, calligrapher, librarian, researcher on type matters and influence upon 20th century typography
• Katherine Brehme Warren, geneticist and scientific editor
• Susan Weber, professor of Bard Graduate Center and wife of George Soros
• Judith Weisenfeld, scholar of Afro-American religion
• Irene J. Winter, American art historian

  Actresses and performers

• Sissy Biggers, host of Ready.. Set... Cook! 1996–2000
• Franziska Boas, dancer, percussionist and dance therapist
• Clara Bryant, actress
• Catherine de Castelbajac, model and fashion journalist
• Michelle Collins, American comedian and talk show host, former presenter of The View
• Jill Eikenberry, actress
• Denise Faye, director, choreographer, actress
• Greta Gerwig, actress, screenwriter, filmmaker who won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy in 2018 and was nominated for two Academy Awards
• Jaime Gleicher, reality star, producer, psychotherapist.
• Lauren Graham, actress, played Lorelai Gilmore on TV show Gilmore Girls
• Sprague Grayden, actress, played Judith Montgomery on Joan of Arcadia
• Alexandra Guarnaschelli, celebrity chef at Butter Restaurant in New York City, television personality
• Anshula Kapoor, daughter of Indian film producer Boney Kapoor and member of the Kapoor family in Hindi cinema
• Shari Lewis, ventriloquist, puppeteer, television show host
• Mozhan Marnò, actress, House of Cards
• Peggy McCay, actress
• Kelly McCreary, actress, Grey's Anatomy
• Julie Mond, actress
• Cynthia Nixon, actress, played Miranda Hobbes on TV show Sex and the City
• Chelsea Peretti, actress, writer for TV show Parks and Recreation
• Lee Remick, actress
• Ariane Rinehart, actress, played Liesl on The Sound of Music Live!
• Joan Rivers, star comedian, TV host
• Christy Carlson Romano, actress, voice of Kim Possible
• Frankie Shaw, actress on Mr. Robot
• Vinessa Shaw, actress, 40 Days and 40 Nights
• Ebonie Smith, actress, The Jeffersons
• Sasha Soreff, choreographer
• Zuzanna Szadkowski, actress, played Dorota on TV show Gossip Girl
• Sophia Takal, actress and director
• Twyla Tharp, choreographer, dancer
• Sarah Thompson, television actress
• Donna Vivino, actress and singer
• Jane Wyatt, actress

  Architects

• Norma Merrick Sklarek, first black woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States
• Carole Rifkind, American architectural critic, historian, and author, wife of cancer researcher Richard Rifkind

  Artists

• Sana Amanat, comic book creator and director at Marvel Comics, creator of Marvel's first Muslim female superheroMs. Marvel
• Sarah Charlesworth, photographer and conceptual artist and professor at Princeton University
• Michelle Lopez, American sculptor and installation artist and 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient
• Maud Morgan, modern artist
• Josephine Paddock, painter
• Jane Teller, sculptor and recipient of the 1988 Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award
• Mierle Laderman Ukeles, performance artist, winner of the 2001 Anonymous Was A Woman Award
• Donna Zakowska, Emmy Award-winning American costume designer for her work on John Adams

  Athletes

• Stacey Borgman, member of crew team for the United States at the 2004 Olympics
• Gloria Callen, swimmer and Associated Press Athlete of the Year of 1942
• Abby Marshall, chess player; won 2009 Denker Tournament of High School Champions
• Erinn Smart, fencer for the United States at the 2004 Olympics silver medalist in team foil fencing at the Beijing 2008 Olympics
• Robin Wagner, figure-skating coach

  Businesswomen

• Eileen Ford, co-founder of Ford Models, one of the world's oldest and most influential modeling agencies
• Phyllis E. Grann, first female CEO of Penguin Putnam and editor of Knopf Doubleday
• Elinor Guggenheimer, civic leader, philanthropist
• Alexandra Creel Goelet, heiress, niece of Robert David Lion Gardiner, wife of Robert Guestier Goelet and owner of Gardiners Island
• Nina Griscom, model, television host, socialite, businesswoman, stepdaughter of Felix Rohatyn
• Mary Harriman Rumsey, founder of nonprofit organization Junior League, daughter of railroad magnate E. H. Harriman and sister to New York Governor W. Averell Harriman
• Anjli Jain, executive director of CampusEAI Consortium
• Madeline Kripke, book collector
• Harriet Burton Laidlaw, suffragist and first female corporate director of Standard & Poor's
• Adele Lewisohn Lehman, philanthropist and member of the Lehman family, daughter-in-law of Mayer Lehman
• Liz Neumark, founder and CEO of New York catering company Great Performances
• Sheila Nevins, president of HBO documentary films; winner of 27 Primetime Emmy Awards and 3 Peabody Awards
• Joan Whitney Payson, co-founder and majority of owner of the New York Mets, granddaughter of United States Secretary of State John Hay and member of the Whitney family
• Azita Raji, investment banker, United States Ambassador to Sweden
• Helen Rogers Reid, newspaper publisher, president of the New York Herald Tribune
• Devorah Rose, socialite, entrepreneur and editor of Social Life magazine
• Alexis Stewart, daughter of Martha Stewart '64; TV host and radio personality
• Martha Stewart, business magnate, entrepreneur, homemaking advocate
• Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, heiress, and owner of The New York Times, daughter of The New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs
• Elizabeth Wiatt, businesswoman in the fashion industry

  Journalists

• Natalie Angier, author and science writer for The New York Times; won the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 1991
• Jami Bernard, film critic for The New York Post and The New York Daily News, founder of Barncat Publishing Inc.; author whose books include a memoir of surviving breast cancer
• Katherine Boo, recipient of Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2000 and the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant"
• Mona Charen, nationally syndicated columnist, political analyst, and author
• Liz Clarke, journalist for The Washington Post, co-host of The Tony Kornheiser Show
• Herawati Diah, Indonesian journalist
• Deborah Feyerick, journalist and CNN correspondent
• Laura Flanders, correspondent for Air America and host of "GritTV"
• Sylvana Foa, first female news director of an American television network; first Spokeswoman for Secretary General of the United Nations
• Rana Foroohar, columnist for Financial Times
• Alexis Gelber, former president of the Overseas Press Club
• Piri Halasz, correspondent for Time magazine and art critic
• Maria Hinojosa, correspondent for CNN; NOW on PBS; host of NPR's Latino USA
• Cathy Horyn, fashion journalist, New York Times fashion critic
• Freda Kirchwey, journalist, editor and publisher of The Nation
• Alex Kuczynski, style reporter for The New York Times, daughter of Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
• Minna Lewinson, journalist for The New York Times, first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize
• Juliet Macur, sports journalist for The New York Times
• Courtney E. Martin, feminist author and editor of the feminist blog Feministing
• Agnes E. Meyer, American journalist, philanthropist, civil rights activist, and art patron, mother of The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham
• Judith Miller, former correspondent for New York Times who reported on the story of Iraq's alleged WMD program; Aspen Strategy Group member
• Nonnie Moore, fashion editor at Mademoiselle, Harper's Bazaar and GQ
• Mary Ellis Peltz, music critic, poet, and first chief editor of Opera News
• Anna Quindlen, author and columnist for Newsweek who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992
• Paola Ramos, American journalist, daughter of TV anchor Jorge Ramos
• Atoosa Rubenstein, founder of CosmoGirl and editor-in-chief of Seventeen; youngest ever editor of a teen magazine
• Rachel Slade, magazine editor and author of Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro
• Susan Stamberg, special correspondent, NPR's Morning Edition, former host of All Things Considered and the first woman in the United States to anchor a national nightly news program
• Jeannette Walls, gossip columnist for MSNBC; author of The Glass Castle
• Lis Wiehl, legal analyst for Fox News
• Ellen Willis, essayist and pop music critic
• Julie Zeilinger, feminist writer and editor

  Musicians, singers, and composers

• Laurie Anderson, musician, NASA's first artist-in-residence and pioneer in electronic music, famous for her single "O Superman"
• Sadie Dupuis, vocalist for Speedy Ortiz
• Dorothy Papadakos, concert organist, playwright, and author
• Louise Post, lead singer and guitarist of alternative rock band Veruca Salt
• Roxanne Seeman, songwriter
• Jeanine Tesori, Broadway composer
• Suzanne Vega, singer-songwriter, "Luka", "Tom's Diner"

  Playwrights, screenwriters, and directors

• Jamie Babbit, director of But I'm a Cheerleader and Itty Bitty Titty Committee, and television shows including Gilmore Girls, Alias, and Ugly Betty
• June Bingham Birge, author, playwright, great-granddaughter of Mayer Lehman
• Petra Costa, Academy Award-nominated director, The Edge of Democracy, heiress to the Andrade Gutierrez fortune
• Helen Deutsch, screenwriter, Lili, National Velvet, King Solomon's Mines
• Delia Ephron, author, screenwriter, playwright, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, You've Got Mail
• Greta Gerwig, actor, screenwriter, and Academy Award-nominated director, Lady Bird, Little Women
• Bettina Gilois, screenwriter, Bessie, McFarland, USA
• Gina Gionfriddo, Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright
• Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, screenwriter; mother of Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal
• Kait Kerrigan, playwright
• Annie Leonard, activist and director, The Story of Stuff
• Maria Semple, screenwriter and novelist, Where'd You Go, Bernadette
• Ntozake Shange, Obie Award-winning playwright, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
• Veena Sud, director of Seven Seconds
• Linda Yellen, Emmy Award-winning director, Northern Lights ; producer, Playing for Time

  Political, social and judicial figures

• Sheila Abdus-Salaam, judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Ann Aldrich, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
• Caroline Lexow Babcock, co-founder of the Women's Peace Union and former secretary of the National Woman's Party
• Grace Lee Boggs, author and political activist
• Margot Botsford, associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Janet Lee Bouvier, American socialite and mother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• Claire C. Cecchi, judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
• Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, United States District Court judge
• Nora Hsiung Chu, Chinese educator who served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
• Mindy Domb, representative of the Massachusetts House of Representatives' 3rd Hampshire district
• Ronnie Eldridge, activist, businesswoman, politician, and television host
• Chai Feldblum, commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Lila Fenwick, first black woman to graduate from Harvard Law School and former United Nations official
• Muriel Fox, public relations executive who in 1966 co-founded the National Organization for Women and led the communications effort that introduced the modern women's movement to the media of the world
• Paula Franzese, professor of real property law at Seton Hall Law School
• Helen Gahagan, United States House of Representatives Congresswoman from California
• E. Susan Garsh, associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court
• Helene D. Gayle, M.D., M.P.H., president and CEO of CARE USA and chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
• Nancy Gertner, Judge on United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• Ellen F. Golden, Director, Women's Business Center, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., Wiscasset, Maine
• Diane Gujarati, American lawyer, current judge nominee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• Cheryl Halpern, chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Patricia McMahon Hawkins, United States Ambassador to Togo from 2008 to 2011
• Allegra "Happy" Haynes, Denver politician who served on the Denver City Council
• Susan Herman, President of the American Civil Liberties Union; Professor at Brooklyn Law School
• Marian Blank Horn, judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims
• Jessie Wallace Hughan, United States Senate candidate, author, teacher, founder of Alpha Omicron Pi fraternity
• Mila Jasey, member of the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 27th Legislative District
• Judith Kaye, first woman in highest position in state judiciary, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
• Katherine Kazarian, American politician and member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
• Claire R. Kelly, judge on the United States Court of International Trade
• Christina Kishimoto, current superintendent of the Hawai'i Department of Education
• Jeane Kirkpatrick, first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
• Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Chinese advocate for women's suffrage in the United States and the first woman to receive a PhD from Columbia University
• Wilma B. Liebman, Chair, National Labor Relations Board
• Catherine McCabe, acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 and commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Loretta J. Mester, 11th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
• Hope Portocarrero, first lady of Nicaragua, the wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle
• Stephanie Garcia Richard, former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and current New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands
• Paula Reimers, Rabbi, political activist for Palestinian rights, gender equity, and religious freedom
• Rosalyn Richter, associate justice of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, First Judicial Department
• Nina Shaw, talent attorney whose clients include Jamie Foxx and Nick Cannon
• Shirley Adelson Siegel, housing activist and advocate
• Madeline Singas, district attorney for Nassau County, New York
• Jessica Stern, policy consultant on terrorism who served on the United States National Security Council under Bill Clinton
• Audrey Strauss, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York replacing Geoffrey Berman
• Anna Diggs Taylor, United States District Court judge
• Kang Tongbi, daughter of Kang Youwei and political activist, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
• Gloria Tristani, former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, granddaughter of Senator Dennis Chávez
• Polly Trottenberg, current Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation
• Anne Warburton, first female British Ambassador, British Ambassador to Denmark from 1976 to 1983, and British Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 1983 to 1985; president of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University from 1985 to 1994
• Helene White, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Constance H. Williams, Pennsylvania state senator from 2001 to 2009; daughter of Leon Hess, founder of the Hess Corporation
• Mae Yih, member of the Oregon House of Representatives and Oregon State Senate, first Chinese American to serve in a state senate in the United States
• Akiko Yuge, United Nations Development Programme Representative of Japan

  Religious figures

• Sara Hurwitz, first woman to serve as a Rabba in the Orthodox Jewish clergy

  Spies

• Marion Davis Berdecio, accused Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, comrade of Coplon and Wovschin
• Judith Coplon, Soviet spy in U.S. Justice Department whose convictions were overturned on technicalities
• Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII.
• Juliet Stuart Poyntz, involved in intelligence activities for the Soviet OGPU; founding member of the Communist Party USA
• Patricia Warner, American spy and Congressional Gold Medal recipient
• Flora Wovschin, Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, stepdaughter of Columbia professor/:Category:Soviet spies|Soviet spy Enos Wicher

  Writers

• Léonie Adams, poet
• Joan Abelove, writer
• Susan Mary Alsop, Washingtonian socialite and writer
• Mary Antin, author of the immigrant experience
• Charlotte Armstrong, writer
• Lura Beam, writer and educator
• Jami Bernard, writer and film critic
• Fatima Bhutto, Pakistani poet and writer, granddaughter of Pakistani president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and member of the Bhutto family
• Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
• Sasha Cagen, writer
• Hortense Calisher, writer
• Diana Chang, pioneering Asian-American novelist
• Cassandra Clare, author of The Mortal Instruments
• Rachel Cohn, author of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Gingerbread
• Nadine Jolie Courtney, Bravo TV personality and author of Beauty Confidential and Confessions of a Beauty Addict
• Elise Cowen, poet of the Beat Generation
• Galaxy Craze, novelist
• Susan Daitch, short story writer
• Edwidge Danticat, writer
• Lydia Davis, short story writer, essayist, winner of the International Booker Prize
• Thulani Davis , novelist who won the Grammy Award in 1992
• Tory Dent, poet and HIV/AIDS activist
• Babette Deutsch, author, poet, translator and critic
• Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, author; Barnard College professor and dean
• Francine du Plessix Gray, Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer
• Hallie Ephron, novelist
• Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban
• Mary Gordon, writer and professor of English at Barnard College
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs, American writer, poet, activist
• Indrani Aikath Gyaltsen, writer
• Monique Raphel High, novelist
• Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Price of Salt
• Anne Hollander, historian of fashion
• Helen Hoyt, poet
• Zora Neale Hurston, Harlem Renaissance writer
• Elizabeth Janeway, author and critic
• Joyce Johnson, writer, Minor Characters
• June Jordan, writer and activist
• Erica Jong, writer
• Alexa Junge, writer for The West Wing and Friends
• Jolie Kerr, American writer and podcast host on Heritage Radio Network
• Suki Kim, Guggenheim fellow; author of the award-winning novel The Interpreter and the New York Times bestselling literary nonfiction book, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite
• Joan Kahn, mystery editor and anthologist; also novelist and children's writer
• Mary Beth Keane, American writer and 2015 Guggenheim fellow
• Lily Koppel, author of The Red Leather Diary and The Astronaut Wives Club; writer for the New York Times
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies
• Jane Leavy, sports biographer
• Kyle Lukoff, transgender children's book author; Storytelling of Ravens and When Aidan Became a Brother
• Faith McNulty, writer
• Daphne Merkin, literary critic, essayist, and novelist
• Alice Duer Miller, writer and advisory editor of The New Yorker
• Ottessa Moshfegh, 2016 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winner for Eileen
• Diana Muir, writer and historian
• Alana Newhouse, writer and editor of Tablet Magazine
• Alice Notley, poet
• Sigrid Nunez, novelist, Whiting Awards and the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction recipient
• Iris Owens, novelist
• Edie Parker, author; first wife of Jack Kerouac
• Helena Percas de Ponseti, writer, essayist, scholar, and professor
• Chelsea Peretti, writer and comedian
• Marisha Pessl, author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
• Julia Phillips, American author, Disappearing Earth and finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction
• Belva Plain, writer
• Jenelle Porter, art curator and author
• Ariana Reines, poet
• Kristen Roupenian, writer, Cat Person, You Know You Want This
• Lynne Sharon Schwartz, writer
• Courtney Sheinmel, author of children's books
• Lionel Shriver, novelist and 2005 Orange Prize winner
• Dean Spade, writer, activist, lawyer, Assistant Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law
• Lauren Tarshis, writer, and director at Scholastic Corporation
• Camilla Trinchieri, writer
• Joan Vollmer, Beat poet, partner of William S. Burroughs
• Cecily Wong, writer
• Julie Zeilinger, blogger and feminist writer

  Miscellaneous

• Madeline Kripke, book collector who held one of the world's largest collections of dictionaries, daughter of Jewish philanthropist and rabbi Myer S. Kripke
• Grace Banker, telephone operator who served in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I and led the Hello Girls, for which she received the Distinguished Service Medal
• Kathleen Madden, renowned Contemporary Art historian who worked at as part of the curatorial team for exhibitions at Tate Modern, the Barbican Art Gallery, and the Serpentine Gallery. She also contributes regularly to magazines such as Artforum, Art in America, and OSMOS.

  Fictional alumnae

• In the 1988 Woody Allen film Another Woman, Gena Rowland's character is a philosophy professor at Barnard.
• In the 1992 Woody Allen film Husbands and Wives, Juliette Lewis' character, Rain, is a Barnard student.
• In the 2005 Sigrid Nunez novel The Last of Her Kind, heroines Georgette George and Ann Drayton meet in 1968 as freshman roommates at Barnard.
• In the 2007 Noah Baumbach film Margot at the Wedding, Nicole Kidman's character, a novelist, is a Barnard graduate.
• In the television series Mad Men, the character Rachel Menken is a Barnard graduate.
• In the 2015 film Mistress America, the lead character Tracy Fishko is a freshman at Barnard.
• In season 4 of the television series BoJack Horseman, it is mentioned that the title character's mother, Beatrice, attended Barnard.
• In the 2017 Greta Gerwig film Ladybird, the character based on Gerwig dreams of going to Barnard and at the end discovers she's been accepted and moves to NYC to attend.
• In the 2018 Mira T. Lee novel Everything Here is Beautiful, the narrator talks about going to Barnard and reuniting there with one of her childhood friends from Tennessee.

  Notable faculty

• Nadia Abu El Haj, anthropologist
• Robert Antoni, Commonwealth Writers Prize–winning author
• Randall Balmer, author and historian of American religion
• Dave Bayer, mathematician; actor and math consultant for the film A Beautiful Mind; one of few holders of an Erdős-Bacon number
• Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
• Jenny Boylan, writer
• Frank Brady, leading figure in international chess
• Harriet Brooks, physicist
• Tina Campt, Africana and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Demetrios James Caraley, Editor of the Political Science Quarterly; President of the Academy of Political Science
• Elizabeth Castelli, Professor Of Religion
• John Cheever, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and short story writer
• Yvette Christianse, poet, librettist
• Dennis Dalton, political scientist; renowned nonviolence proponent; scholar of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
• Rosalyn Deutsche, art historian, author, and art critic
• Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, author
• Patricia Louise Dudley, zoologist
• Mortimer Lamson Earle, classicist
• Theodor Gaster, author; religion scholar; translator
• Harry Gideonse, President of Brooklyn College, and Chancellor of the New School for Social Research
• Virginia Gildersleeve
• Mary Gordon, writer
• Elizabeth Hardwick, writer; co-founder of The New York Review of Books; wife of Robert Lowell
• Ken Hechler, U.S. Congressman from West Virginia
• Janet Jakobsen, religion and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Rebecca Jordan-Young, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, author of Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences
• Charles Knapp, Ph.D., philologist and classical scholar
• Janna Levin, physicist
• David Macklovitch, musician
• Perry Mehrling, economic historian
• Gabriela Mistral, first Latin American Nobel Prize winner for Literature
• Samuel Alfred Mitchell, astronomer
• Raymond Moley, proponent and later critic of the New Deal
• Frederick Neuhouser, philosopher
• Sigrid Nunez, novelist
• Elaine Pagels, scholar of early and gnostic Christianity
• Alan F. Segal, ancient Judaism and origins of Christianity; author of Life after Death, and Paul the Convert
• Edmund Ware Sinnott, botanist
• Dolph Sweet, actor
• Ashley Tuttle, former principal dancer at ABT; Tony-nominated actress
• Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize–winning writer and activist

  Recipients of the Medal of Distinction

• Joan Mondale

• Samuel R. Milbank
• Richard Rodgers
• Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger '14

• Adelyn Dohme Breeskin
• Helen Gahagan Douglas '24
• Eleanor Thomas Elliott '48
• William Am Marstellar
• Toni Morrison
• Francis T. P. Plimpton

• Dorothy Height
• Julius S. Held
• Mary Dublin Keyserling '3
• Margaret Mahler
• Alan Pifer
• Henriette H. Swope '25

• Robert L. Hoguet
• Elizabeth Janeway '35
• Beverly Sills

• Carol Bellamy
• Raymond J. Saulnier
• Twyla Tharp '63

• Mario Cuomo
• Vernon Jordan, Jr.
• Mirra Komarovsky '26

• Arthur Altschul
• Annette Kar Baxter '47
• Joseph G. Brennan
• Anna Hill Johnstone '34

• Marian Wright Edelman
• Sidney Dillon Ripley
• Elizabeth Man Sarcka '17

• A. Bartlett Giamatti
• Frances Lehman Loeb
• Helen M. Ranney '41

• Judith Kaye '58
• Sally Falk Moore '43
• Rev. James Parks Morton
• Ellen Stewart

• Augusta Souza Kappner '66
• Ntozake Shange '70
• Maxine Singer

• Joan Kaplan Davidson
• Eugene Lang
• Bernice Segal
• Lottie L. Taylor-Jones

• Jacqueline Barton '74
• Robert L. Bernstein
• Jean Blackwell Hutson '35
• Julie V. Marsteller '69

• Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum '50
• Tisa Chang '63
• Mamphele Ramphele, delivered the 2002 Commencement address

• Ingrith Johnson Deyrup-Olsen '40
• Fred W. Friendly
• Millicent Carey McIntosh
• Frank Stella

• Arthur Ashe
• Elizabeth B. Davis '41
• Helene Lois Kaplan '53
• Bette Bao Lord
• Cyrus Vance

• Walter Cronkite
• Ellen V. Futter '71
• Barbara Stoler Miller '62
• Arthur Mitchell
• Sheila E. Widnall

• Madeleine Albright
• Rosemary Park Anastos
• Derek Bok
• Sissela Bok

• Rita R. Colwell
• Kitty Carlisle Hart
• Maya Lin
• Dame Anne Warburton

• Sarah Brady
• Merce Cunningham
• Charlayne Hunter-Gault
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

• Mary L. Good
• Joan Ganz Cooney
• David Aaron Kessler

• Zoe Caldwell
• Abby Joseph Cohen
• Esther Dyson
• William T. Golden

• Doris Kearns Goodwin, delivered the 2000 Commencement address
• Hanna Holborn Gray
• Annie Leibovitz
• Kathie L. Olson

• Morris Dees
• Susan Hendrickson
• Maxine Greene '38
• Bernice Johnson Reagon, delivered the 2001 Commencement address
• Barbara Novak '50
• Alice Rivlin
• Harold E. Varmus

• Susan Band Horwitz
• Judith Miller '69, delivered the Commencement address
• Martha Nussbaum

• Sylvia Earle
• Louise Glück

• Carla D. Hayden
• Amartya Sen

• Linda Greenhouse
• Audra McDonald
• Francine du Plessix Gray '52

• Joan Didion
• Nicholas D. Kristof
• Mary Patterson McPherson
• Muriel Petioni
• Anna Deavere Smith

• Thelma C. Davidson Adair
• Michael Bloomberg, delivered the 2008 Commencement address
• Billie Jean King
• David Remnick
• Judith Shapiro

• Hillary Clinton, delivered the 2009 Commencement address
• Kay Murray
• Indra Nooyi
• Irene J. Winter '60

• Thelma Golden
• Olympia J. Snowe
• Meryl Streep, delivered the 2010 Commencement address
• Shirley M. Tilghman

• Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, delivered the 2011 Commencement address
• Sylvia Rhone
• Roberta Guaspari
• Jenny Holzer

• Barack Obama, President of the United States, delivered the 2012 Commencement address
• Sally Chapman, Barnard Professor of Chemistry
• Helene D. Gayle '76, President and CEO of CARE, USA
• Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry

• Leymah Gbowee, recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, delivered the 2013 Commencement address
• Jimmie Briggs, founder of the Man Up campaign
• Elizabeth Diller, architect and designer of the High Line
• Lena Dunham, creator, director, writer and star of the HBO series Girls

• Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation
• Mahzarin Banaji, social psychologist and professor of social ethics at Harvard University
• Ursula Burns, chair and chief executive officer of Xerox
• Patti Smith, musician, poet, and artist

• Samantha Power, academic and journalist
• Simi Linton, expert on disability and the arts
• Nadia Lopez, principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy
• Diana Nyad, long-distance swimmer and author