List of Virginia Commonwealth University alumni

This article lists notable alumni and students of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Art

• Diana al-Hadid – sculptor and installation artist (MFA 2005)
• Hannah Altman – photographer (MFA 2020)
• Chino Amobi – contemporary artist, musician and painter
• Fahmida Azim – Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator
• Sam Bass – motorsports artist
• Trudy Benson – abstract artist (BFA 2007)
• Nell Blaine – landscape painter
• Noah Bradley – fantasy artist known for Dungeons & Dragons
• Loryn Brazier – painter, known for her portraits of Virginia politicians
• James Bumgardner – painter, multimedia artist, RPI, VCU art faculty (BFA 1955)
• Lauren Clay – sculptor known for her large fantasy inspired installations
• Daryl Cobb – children's book illustrator
• Tony Cokes – visual artist and educator (MFA 1985)
• Bonnie Collura – artist known for figurative multi-media sculptures, textiles and installations
• Rose Datoc Dall – painter (BFA 1990)
• Assil Diab – Sudanese graphic designer
• Paul DiPasquale – sculptor known for designing several public sculptures in Virginia, including the Arthur Ashe Monument on Richmond's Monument Avenue and King Neptune on Virginia Beach's boardwalk
• Tara Donovan – sculptor (MFA 1999)
• Rama Duwaji – animator, illustrator and ceramist, First Lady of New York City (BFA 2019)
• Torkwase Dyson – painter (BFA 1999)
• Joseph Craig English – printmaker (BFA 1970)
• Moses Jacob Ezekiel – sculptor (1866–68)
• Tarfia Faizullah – poet
• Colette Fu – photographer, book artist and paper engineer, known for her pop-up books
• Judith Godwin – abstract painter
• Emmet Gowin – photographer and portraitist
• Donwan Harrell – fashion designer, founder of Prps and Akademiks (BFA 1989)
• Sylvia Harris – graphic designer known for designing the U.S. Census and as a pioneer in social impact design
• Sally Heller – artist known for her large installations
• Lisa Hoke – sculptor and installation artist (BFA 1978)
• Brian Hubble – illustrator
• Katie Hudnall – artist known for woodworking
• Sterling Hundley – illustrator and painter (BFA 1998)
• Anna Journey – poet
• Michael Kaluta – comic book artist
• Abby Kasonik – painter (BFA 1998)
• Dawn Kasper – interdisciplinary artist
• Matt Kenyon – new media artist
• Ana Ines Barragan King – founder of the Latin Ballet of Virginia
• Mia LaBerge – oil painter
• Abigail Larson – fantasy artist
• Nate Lewis – cut paper sculptor (BS 2009)
• Whitney Lynn – sculptor and performance artist (BFA 2004)
• Philip B. Meggs – graphic designer and historian of design (BFA 1964, MFA 1971)
• Wiley Miller – cartoonist
• Eric Millikin – conceptual, internet, video and performance artist (MFA 2021)
• Ayanah Moor – conceptual artist
• Lois Morrison – book artist
• Charlotte Moss – interior designer, author and philanthropist
• Mel Odom – book cover artist
• G. Byron Peck – mural artist
• Jon Pineda – poet
• Kevin Powers – poet
• Alston Purvis – graphic designer and author
• Beatrice Riese – artist and art collector
• Rob G. – comic book artist
• Anne Savedge – photographic artist
• Steve Segal – Pixar animator
• Mark Sloan – museum curator
• Janice Smith – furniture maker (BFA 1976)
• Ron Smith – poet
• Carol Sutton – painter and sculptor (BFA 1967)
• Alice Tangerini – botanical illustrator
• Kevin Tinsley – comic book illustrator
• Allison Titus – poet
• Alessandra Torres – performance and installation artist (MFA 2006)
• Phil Trumbo – art director and graphic designer
• Betony Vernon – jewelry designer
• Charles Vess – fantasy and comics illustrator (BFA 1974)

Business

• Richard M. Bracken – chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Hospital Corporation of America
• Jeff Ray Clark – economist specializing in public choice theory
• Edward N. Coffman – accounting scholar who specialized in its history
• Jerry Dipoto – Seattle Mariners baseball executive
• Catherine C. Eckel – behavioral economist
• Robert Graboyes – economist and musician
• John Graham – economist and professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business
• Donwan Harrell – creator of luxury denim line PRPS and designer at Nike
• Jenny Hollowell – music industry executive
• Mildred Callahan Jones – known as the "Flag Lady," she pioneered the decorative flag industry
• Carole Ann Klonarides – art consultant
• Angela Patton – CEO of Girls for a Change
• Christopher Poole – founder of 4chan
• Norman Sisisky – founder of Petersburg Bottling Company, which became Pepsi (BBA)
• Kenneth Sullivan – CEO of Smithfield Foods

Government

• Watkins Abbitt, Jr. – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Lashrecse Aird – member of the Virginia State Senate
• Clay Athey – politician and jurist
• Danny Avula – mayor of Richmond, Virginia
• Lamont Bagby – member of the Virginia State Senate
• Carl E. Bain – pharmacist and politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates
• Cynthia Ball – state politician from North Carolina
• Peter A. Blake – Virginia secretary of Education
• John Fulmer Bright – mayor of Richmond, Virginia
• Walter C. Caudill – member of the Virginia General Assembly
• Michael Chapman – director of Homeland Security for Missouri
• Keyanna Conner – Virginia secretary of Administration
• Virgil J. Cox – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Rosalyn Dance – former member of the Virginia State Senate
• Bob Deuell – member of the Texas Senate
• Rama Duwaji – First Lady of New York
• Natalie Edwards – former senior official at the United States Department of the Treasury
• Debra Gardner – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Conley E. Greear – politician and dentist
• Alan Gross – U.S. government contractor arrested in Cuba
• Todd Haymore – Virginia Secretary of Commerce (MBA)
• Megan Healy – Virginia secretary of Labor
• Cynthia Eppes Hudson – deputy attorney general for Virginia
• Anita Josey-Herring – chief judge of the Superior Court of Washington D.C.
• Chris LaCivita – senior advisor to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign
• Yasonna Laoly – Minister of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia (2014–present)
• John W. Marshall – secretary of Public Safety for Virginia
• Adele McClure – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Nancy McFarlane – former mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina (2011–2019)
• Delores McQuinn – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Jackson Miller – director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services of Virginia
• Kim E. Petersen – security and counter-terrorism expert
• Todd Pillion – member of the Virginia State Senate
• Will Sessoms – mayor of Virginia Beach, Virginia (2008–2018)
• Javaid Siddiqi – Virginia secretary of Education
• Marilyn Tavenner – administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services
• Kim Taylor – member of Virginia House of Delegates
• Ronald L. Tillett – Virginia secretary of Finance
• Dietra Trent – Virginia secretary of Education
• Schuyler VanValkenburg – member of Virginia House of Delegates
• Nikuyah Walker – mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia
• Justin Wilson – mayor of Alexandria, Virginia
• Rob Wittman – Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Virginia's 1st congressional district

Media

• Mamé Adjei – runner-up of America's Next Top Model cycle 22
• David Baldacci – author, best known for his novel Absolute Power (1996)
• Greg Barrett – journalist and public speaker
• Macon Blair – actor and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning filmmaker, known for his collaborations with Jeremy Saulnier
• Cocoa Brown – actress
• Reilly Brown – comic book illustrator and writer, known for his work on Cable & Deadpool
• Caressa Cameron – 2010 Miss America
• Paris Campbell Grace – TikToker, singer, and comedian
• Daryl Cobb – author, national children's educational presenter
• Chad L. Coleman – actor
• Andrea Detwiler – 2006 Daytime Emmy winner
• Stephen Furst – actor and director, known as "Flounder" in the National Lampoon classic Animal House (1978) as well as TV series St. Elsewhere and Babylon 5
• Jason Butler Harner – Broadway, television, and film actor; performed in original production of Coast of Utopia; was in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-nominated film Changeling
• Jennifer A. Johnson – chief editor of the journal Sexualization, Media, and Society
• Bilal Khan – Pakistani singer and actor
• Zachary Knighton – actor, ABC series Happy Endings
• Boris Kodjoe – actor, model
• Robert Lanham – author, best known for his book The Hipster Handbook (2003)
• Valerie LaPointe – director and storyboard artist for Pixar Animation Studios
• Debbie Matenopoulos – TV host, known for co-hosting ABC's The View, The Daily 10, and TV Guide Channel's The Screening Room
• Rebekah McKendry – film director
• Wiley Miller – cartoonist and author of the comic strip Non Sequitur
• Caelynn Miller-Keyes – runner-up Miss USA 2018, Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise contestant
• Trevor Moore – comedian and founding member of The Whitest Kids U' Know
• Howard Owen – journalist, author of crime fiction and the novel Littlejohn
• Jay Pharoah – comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member
• Jon Pineda – award-winning poet and novelist
• Christopher Poole, aka moot – founder of 4chan
• Kevin Powers – novelist and poet, known for The Yellow Birds (2013), a finalist for the National Book Award
• Tom Robbins – author, best known for his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976)
• Steve Segal – comic artist, animation director
• Ronnie Sidney, II – graphic novelist
• Robb Spewak – producer and radio personality for The Don and Mike Show and The Mike O'Meara Show
• Steve Rasnic Tem – horror fiction writer, winner of the World Fantasy, British Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards
• Phil Trumbo – film animator, artist
• Brandon Wardell – comedian and Twitter personality
• Mike Wieringo – comic book artist for Marvel and DC comics; co-creator of Image Comics series Tellos

Music

• Chris Adler – drummer for Lamb of God
• Chino Amobi – experimental electronic musician
• Anthony Anderson – operatic baritone singer
• Anhayla – singer-songwriter, guitarist
• Sam Beam – singer/songwriter known as Iron & Wine
• Bruce Bouton – country music guitarist
• Lucy Dacus – singer-songwriter
• McKinley Dixon – rapper and singer
• Nickelus F – rapper, producer, videographer
• Gwar – several founding members of the band, including Dave Brockie
• Gordy Haab – composer of the Star Wars video games music and multiple award winner in that genre
• Loston Harris – jazz pianist
• Darius Jones – saxophonist
• Emre Kartari – Turkish jazz percussionist
• Lamb of God – several founding members of the band
• Stefan Lessard – bassist for Dave Matthews Band
• Matthew Ramsey – songwriter, lead singer for Old Dominion
• Nate Smith – drummer, songwriter, producer, and three-time Grammy nominee
• Eric Stanley – violinist, composer
• Robbin Thompson – singer-songwriter
• Steve West – drummer of the indie rock band Pavement and front man for Marble Valley

Science

• Hunter "Patch" Adams – founder of the Gesundheit! Institute and subject of the movie Patch Adams
• Arpana Agrawal – psychiatric geneticist and professor of psychiatry, 2018 Theodore Reich Young Investigator Award
• Beatriz Amendola – Urugayan-American radiation oncologist
• Meike Bartels – behavioral geneticist, known for research on the genetics of happiness
• Mary Baughman – physician, medical school professor, and clubwoman
• Baruj Benacerraf – winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Medicine, class of 1945
• Frederick Bieber – Canadian-American geneticist currently serving as senior medical geneticist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, member of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University
• William Chivous Bostic Sr., class of 1905
• Kathleen T. Brady – psychiatrist
• Lorna Breen – physician
• Caroline Orr Bueno (PhD) – social and behavioral sciences researcher specializing in disinformation networks
• Georgia Chenevix-Trench – cancer researcher who investigates genetic predispositions to cancer
• Anne L. Coleman – chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Director of the Stein Eye Institute at University of California, Los Angeles
• Joseph DeJarnette – director of Western State Hospital, physician and eugenicist
• Francis L. Delmonico – surgeon, clinical professor and health expert in the field of transplantation
• Brian D'Onofrio – psychologist who researches the causes of psychopathology in children and adolescents
• Dorothy Espelage – psychologist and expert in teen violence
• Mary Cynthia Farach-Carson – biochemist, known for her work in extracellular matrix, perlecan, tissue engineering and bone metastasis
• Ann S. Fulcher – abdominal radiologist and chair of the department of radiology at Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Medicine
• Isabel Garcia – dentist and academic administrator
• Nassir Ghaemi – psychiatrist, author, and professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine
• Philip C. Kendall – psychologist who produced the Coping Cat program
• Saul Krugman – medical researcher who discovered a vaccine against hepatitis B
• Feng Liu – material physicist
• Michael L. Madigan – biomedical engineer
• Benjamin Neale – statistical geneticist with a specialty in psychiatric genetics
• Eduardo D. Rodriguez – Cuban-American plastic and reconstructive surgeon, and reconstructive transplant surgeon, who is known for his contribution to the field of facial transplantation and vascularized composite allotransplantation
• Gladys Smithwick – physician and Presbyterian medical missionary in China and the Belgian Congo
• Sudhir Srivastava – chief of the Cancer Biomarkers Research Group of the Division of Cancer Prevention at the United States NCI
• Jeffery Taubenberger, M.D. – virologist
• Arpad Vass – research scientist, forensic anthropologist and professor

Sports

• Mo Alie-Cox – current tight end for the Indianapolis Colts
• Yann Bonato – former European professional basketball player; former France National Team member; member of France's silver medal-winning men's basketball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics; played one season (1990–91) at VCU
• Troy Daniels – current shooting guard for Olimpia Milano
• Andrew Dykstra – MLS goalkeeper for D.C. United; also played with the Chicago Fire in MLS
• Treveon Graham – current forward in the G League
• Lanto Griffin – current professional golfer on the PGA Tour
• Sherman Hamilton – former member of Canadian National Men's Basketball Team; participated in 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia
• Gerald Henderson – played for the Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Seattle SuperSonics, and San Antonio Spurs, winning four NBA championships
• Quanitra Hollingsworth – center for the Washington Mystics of the WNBA; member of Turkey's 2012 Olympic women's basketball team
• Brandon Inge – MLB infielder, formerly with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers
• Sean Marshall – relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds
• Eric Maynor – played for the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers
• Cla Meredith – former MLB relief pitcher; played for the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres and Baltimore Orioles
• Hayley Moorwood – member of New Zealand women's Olympic Soccer Team in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012
• Dominic Oduro – current forward for the Columbus Crew in MLS
• Juvonte Reddic (born 1992) – basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• John Rollins – professional golfer and PGA pro
• Larry Sanders – drafted #15 overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2010 NBA Draft
• Gonzalo Segares – former defender for Apollon Limassol in Cyprus; former defender for the Chicago Fire in MLS
• Scott Sizemore – infielder for the Oakland Athletics
• Justin Tillman (born 1996) – basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Dave Van Horne – broadcaster honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Brianté Weber (born 1992) – basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League

Other

• Leona S. Aiken – psychology professor
• William M. Anderson Jr. (BA) – president of the University of Mary Washington
• Nancy Wright Beasley – author
• Errett Callahan – archeologist
• Caressa Cameron – Miss Virginia
• Eric H. du Plessis – author, translator and educator
• Frank E. Grizzard Jr. – American historian
• Grace E. Harris – academic administrator and social worker
• Susan Higginbotham – historical fiction author and attorney
• Jack Hranicky – archeologist
• Hendrée E. Jones – researcher on women's substance abuse
• Eileen A. Joy – Old English literary specialist
• Mirta Martin (Ph.D. 1996) – ninth president of Fort Hays State University
• Sesha Joi Moon – chief diversity officer of the Commonwealth of Virginia; former chief diversity officer of the U.S. House of Representatives (B.A. 2005, M.S. 2008)
• Margaret Ann Neale – Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, emerita, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Howard Owen – author and winner of the Hammett Prize
• Sheri Reynolds – author of contemporary Southern fiction

References