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

Presidents

• Patrick Awuah Jr. (1988) – president of Ashesi University
• David Baltimore (1960) – president of California Institute of Technology; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975
• Nancy Y. Bekavac – first female president of Scripps College
• Detlev Bronk (1920) – former president of Johns Hopkins University and the National Academy of Sciences
• Mary Schmidt Campbell – president of Spelman College
• Kimberly Wright Cassidy – president of Bryn Mawr College
• Sean M. Decatur – president of Kenyon College
• Neil Grabois – president of Colgate University and former provost of Williams College
• Tori Haring-Smith – president of Washington and Jefferson College
• Clark Kerr (1932) – first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley; president of the University of California
• Richard Wall Lyman – former president of Stanford University
• Christina Hull Paxson (1982) – president of Brown University
• David H. Porter (1958) – former president of Skidmore College
• Susan Poser (1985) – president of Hofstra University
• Robert Prichard – former president of the University of Toronto
• Lawrence Schall (1975) – president of Oglethorpe University
• Alan Valentine – former president of the University of Rochester

Provosts

• Paul Courant – provost of the University of Michigan
• Phyllis Wise – provost of the University of Washington

Deans

• T. Alexander Aleinikoff (1974) – dean of the Georgetown University Law Center
• William Boulding – dean of the Fuqua School of Business
• Christopher Edley Jr. (1973) – dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law
• Frances Halsband (1965) – former dean of the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute
• James C. Hormel (1955) – former dean of the University of Chicago Law School
• Stewart J. Schwab (1975) – dean and professor of law at the Cornell Law School
• Daniel L. Schwartz (1979) – dean of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education

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<nowiki/>at
• 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
• Margaret L. Anderson – historian and professor at University of California, Berkeley
• Elizabeth S. Anderson (1981) – professor of philosophy and women's studies at University of Michigan; MacArthur Fellow 2019
• Dave Bayer&nbsp;– 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
• Jonathan Dewald – professor of history at State University of New York at Buffalo
• Cora Diamond – emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Virginia
• Bruce T. Draine&nbsp;– professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University
• Lara Estroff – materials scientist and professor at Cornell University
• Sandra Faber (1966)&nbsp;– professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz
• Andre Gunder Frank (1950) – professor of sociology and economics at the University of Chile; developer of dependency theory and world-systems theory
• 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
• 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
• 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&nbsp;– 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
• John Hopfield (1954) – professor of molecular biology at Princeton University; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024

• Alexander Huk – professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin
• 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
• Linda Datcher Loury (1973) – social economist and professor at Tufts University
• Ray Jackendoff – professor of linguistics at Tufts University
• Robert MacPherson (1966)&nbsp;– 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)&nbsp;– economist associated with Carnegie Mellon University and the Australian National University; winner of 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
• Robert D. Putnam – social capital theorist and Harvard University professor; author of Bowling Alone
• Jane S. Richardson (1962) – Duke University biochemistry professor; inventor of Ribbon diagrams
• 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)&nbsp;– 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

Architecture

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

Art

• Bruce Cratsley (1966) – photographer specialized in still lives, portraits of friends, and gay life in New York City
• Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2004) – visual artist
• 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

• 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
• 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
• Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. (1946) – co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
• Rachel Jacobs (1997) – CEO of ApprenNet
• William N. Kinnard (1947) – author, lecturer, and expert on the topic of real estate valuation
• 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)&nbsp;– 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
• Danna Azrieli – chair of Azrieli Group

Entertainment

• Joseph Altuzarra (2005) – fashion designer, winner of the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award
• Lisa Albert&nbsp;(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/producer of The Wonder Years and Ellen
• Heywood Hale Broun – sportswriter and CBS Sports commentator
• Al Carmines (1958) – composer of Off-Broadway musicals
• Marshall Curry (1992) – Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker of Street Fight, ', Racing Dreams, and Point and Shoot
• David Dye (1972) – radio personality and host of the World Cafe
• Steven Gilborn (1969) – actor
• Evan Gregory (2001) – member of The Gregory Brothers
• Andrew Rose Gregory (2004) – member of The Gregory Brothers
• 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
• 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
• Dana Lyons (1982) – independent singer/songwriter
• François Picard (1988 ) – journalist who hosts The Debate and The World This Week
• 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
• 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