List of Mount Holyoke College people

The following is a list of individuals associated with Mount Holyoke College through attending as a student, or serving as a member of the faculty or staff.

Notable alumnae

Academics and scientists

Clara Harrison Stranahan, 1849 – author; founder and trustee of Barnard College
Harriet Newell Haskell, 1855 – educator and administrator
Lucy Myers Wright Mitchell, 1864 – one of the first female classical archaeologists
Cornelia Clapp, 1871 – zoologist and marine biologist
Mary Cutler Fairchild, 1875 – pioneering librarian
Alice Carter Cook, circa 1888 – botanist and later faculty, first female recipient of an American botany PhD
Marian E. Hubbard, 1889 – zoology professor
Alice Huntington Bushee, 1891 – Spanish literature professor at Wellesley College
Martha Warren Beckwith, 1893 – anthropologist
Abby Howe Turner, 1896 – founded Mount Holyoke's department of physiology
Caroline Ransom Williams, 1896 – first female Egyptologist in North America
Margaret Morse Nice, 1905 – ornithologist
Alzada Comstock, 1910 – economics professor
Mildred Sanderson, 1910 – mathematician
Louise Freeland Jenkins, 1911 – astronomer
Marion Elizabeth Blake, 1913 – classics professor
Helen G. Fisk, 1917 – vocational services educator
Rachel Fuller Brown, 1920 – chemist who discovered Nystatin
Mildred Trotter, 1920 – forensic anthropologist
Elizabeth K. Worley, 1924 – zoologist, microbiologist
Lucy Weston Pickett, 1925 – chemist
Helen Sawyer Hogg, 1926 – astronomer
Alice Standish Allen, 1929 – first female engineering geologist in North America
Janet Wilder Dakin, 1933 – zoologist who was the youngest sister of Thornton Wilder and Charlotte Wilder
Sara Anderson Immerwahr, 1935 – classical archaeologist
Phoebe Stanton, 1937 – architectural historian, professor at Johns Hopkins University, and active in urban planning for the city of Baltimore.
Virginia Griffing, 1940, physicist and chemist, first woman on the faculty of Catholic University of America's physics department
Carolyn Shaw Bell, 1941 – economics professor
Marie Mercury Roth, 1945 – synthetic organic chemist
H. Catherine W. Skinner, 1952 – geologist and mineralogist
Eva Moseley, 1953 – curator and archivist
Mary McHenry, 1954 – professor of English credited with introducing African American literature to Mount Holyoke
Margaret A. Dix, 1964 – British-Guatemalan botanist and taxonomist specializing in orchids
Jane English, 1964 – physicist, translator, photographer
Dolores Hayden, 1966 – professor of architecture, urbanism, and American studies
Phyllis Young, 1966 – professor of Classical Studies
Carolyn Collette, 1967 – professor of English
Karen E. Rowe, 1967 – English professor at UCLA
Susan Shirk, 1967 – professor of political science and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for North Asia during the Clinton administration
Lila M. Gierasch, 1970 – professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology
Melissa McGrath, 1977 – astronomer; Chief Scientist at NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center
Catherine Colello Walker, 2007 – planetary scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Activists

Lucy Stone – women's rights activist
Olympia Brown – women's rights activist
Helen Pitts, 1859 – women's rights activist, second wife of Frederick Douglass, and founder of the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association
Eliza Read Sunderland – writer, educator, lecturer, women's rights advocate
Hortense Parker, 1883 – daughter of African American abolitionist, John Parker and the first African American student to graduate from Mount Holyoke College
Alice Bradford Wiles, 1873 – Chicago clubwoman
Elizabeth Holloway Marston, 1915 – the inspiration for Wonder Woman
Ruth Muskrat Bronson, 1925 – poet, educator, Indian rights activist
Sybil Bailey Stockdale, 1946 – founded the National League of Families of American Prisoners and MIAs in S.E. Asia; Lecturer; widow of '92 U.S. vice-presidential nominee, Adm. James Stockdale
Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, 1954 – environmentalist and philanthropist; designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project in 2006
Gloria Johnson-Powell, 1958 – child psychiatrist; important figure in the Civil Rights Movement and first African-American woman to attain tenure at Harvard Medical School
Rose Dugdale – political activist and prominent member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Jody Cohen, 1976 – first female rabbi in Connecticut history; leader in the Women's Rabbinic Network and Union for Reform Judaism
Lynn Pasquerella, 1980 – medical ethicist; president, Mount Holyoke College; president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities
Louise C. Purington, 1864 – physician and temperance activist
Mallika Dutt, 1983 – executive director of Breakthrough, an international human rights organization
Kavita Ramdas, 1985 – president and CEO, Global Fund for Women
Marcia Hofmann, 2000 – digital rights attorney and activist
Mei Lum, 2012 – Chinese-American artist, activist, and entrepreneur

Actors, musicians, dancers and performers

Elizabeth Eaton Converse – later known as Connie Converse, 1946 – singer and songwriter
Caitlin Clarke, 1974 – actress
Michelle Hurst, 1974 – actress, known for her role as Miss Claudette on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black
Nancy Gustafson, 1978 – opera singer
Melinda Mullins, 1979 – actress
Donna Kane, 1984 – actress
Geneva Carr, 1988 – actress, Tony Award nominee, main cast member in CBS television series Bull
Kimberly Hebert Gregory, 1994 – actress
Zeb Bangash, 2004 – part of Pakistani music duo Zeb and Haniya
Zoe Weizenbaum, 2014 – actress, known for her roles in Memoirs of a Geisha and 12 and Holding
Sho Madjozi, 2015 – South African rapper

Artists

Esther Howland, 1847 – artist noted for her role in popularizing St. Valentine's Day cards
Minerva J. Chapman, 1880 – painter
Sarah A. Worden 1883–1891 – painter, art instructor
Jane Hammond, 1972 – artist
Susan Mohl Powers, 1966 – sculptor, painter
Maia Cruz Palileo, 2001 – artist
Zehra Laila Javeri – artist

Athletes

Stacy Apfelbaum – rowing cox; gold medal winner at the 1984 World Rowing Championships
Margaret Hoffman, 1934 – swimmer who participated in both the 1928 Summer Olympics and 1932 Summer Olympics
Imogene Opton Fish, 1955 – alpine skier who was captain of the U.S. women's 1952 Winter Olympics ski team
Michele Drolet, 1976 – blind cross-country skier who was the first American woman to ever earn a Paralympic cross-country skiing medal – bronze at the 1994 Winter Paralympics
Harriet (Holly) Metcalf, 1981 – executive director and founder of Row As One Institute who won a gold medal in rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Mary Mazzio, 1983 – filmmaker and Olympic athlete who participated in rowing at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Olga Maria Sacasa, 1984 – cyclist; first woman to represent Nicaragua in cycling, at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Katheryn Curi, 1996 – cyclist who placed first at the National Road Race Championships in Park City, Utah in June 2005

Businesswomen

Elaine Greene – literary agent and founder of Elaine Greene Agency, later Greene & Heaton
Maria J. Forbes – manager, Lunalilo Home
Jean Picker Firstenberg, 1958 – director and CEO of the American Film Institute
Mary Duffy, 1966 – feminist fashion expert, spokeswoman, entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker, expanding concepts of beauty for the majority of women who do not fit ideal stereotypes popularized by fashion and media Big Beauties/Little Women, Ford Models
Barbara J. Desoer, 1974 – CEO for Citibank N.A.; member of its board of directors
Eileen Kraus, 1960 – trailblazing female banker and president of Connecticut National Bank
Vicki Roberts, 1980 – attorney, on-air legal commentator, television and film personality
Barbara Cassani, 1982 – first leader of London's successful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics
Sheila Lirio Marcelo, 1993 – founder and CEO of Care.com
Sara Menker, 1982, CEO, businesswoman, and food sustainability advocate

College presidents

Susan Tolman Mills, 1845 – co-founder and first president of Mills College
Ada Howard, 1853 – first president of Wellesley College
Abbie Park Ferguson, 1856 – founder and president of Huguenot College
Sarah Ann Dickey, 1869 – founder of Mount Hermon Female Seminary
Florence M. Read, 1909 – former president, Spelman College
Yau Tsit Law, 1916 – dean of women, Lingnan University
Pauline Tompkins, 1941 – former president, Cedar Crest College
Barbara M. White, 1941 – former president, Mills College
Alice Stone Ilchman 1957 – former president, Sarah Lawrence College
Elizabeth Topham Kennan, 1960 – former president, Mount Holyoke College
Carol Geary Schneider, 1967 – president, Association of American Colleges and Universities
Nancy J. Vickers, 1967 – president, Bryn Mawr College
Elaine Tuttle Hansen, 1969 – president, Bates College
Lynn Pasquerella, 1980 – president, Mount Holyoke College
Vivian Blanche Small 1896, BA; 1912, Litt.D. – president, Lake Erie College
Leocadia I. Zak, 2018 – president, Agnes Scott College
Patricia Draves, 2024 – president, Monmouth College

Computer scientists and graphic designers

Jean E. Sammet, 1948 – computer scientist who developed the FORMAC programming language
Susan Kare, 1975 – original designer of many of the interface elements for the original Apple Macintosh.

Doctors, nurses and psychologists

Nancy M. Hill, 1859 – Civil War nurse and one of the first female doctors in the U.S.
Seraph Frissell, 1869 – physician, medical writer
Mary Phylinda Dole, 1886, 1889 – became a doctor at a time when it was difficult for women to do so
Dorothy Hansine Andersen, 1922 – doctor involved in cystic fibrosis research
Virginia Apgar, 1929 – doctor who developed the Apgar score for evaluating newborns; anesthesiologist
Florence Wald 1938 – nurse, leader of the U.S. hospice movement
Ellen P. Reese, 1948 – psychologist
Abby Howe Turner – professor of physiology and zoology who founded the department of physiology at Mount Holyoke
Gloria Johnson-Powell, 1958 – child psychiatrist; an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement and the first African American woman to attain tenure at Harvard Medical School

Filmmakers, broadcast presidents, and producers

Martha Atwell – radio director
Dulcy Singer, 1955 – former Emmy Award-winning producer of Sesame Street
Julia Phillips, 1965 – Hollywood producer and author
Debra Martin Chase, 1977 – Hollywood producer
Mary Mazzio, 1983 – filmmaker and Olympic athlete who participated in rowing at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Sonali Gulati, 1996 – filmmaker and director of the film Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night
Chloé Zhao, 2005 – Academy Award winner, director/filmmaker

Journalists

Janet Huntington Brewster, 1933 – philanthropist, writer, and radio broadcaster; wife of Edward R. Murrow
Beth Karas, 1979 – senior reporter, CourtTV
Dari Alexander, 1991 – co-anchor of WNYW's weeknight 6 p.m. newscast, and previously a reporter and part-time anchor for the Fox News Channel

Judges

Maryanne Trump Barry, 1958 – judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; older sister of 45th president of the United States Donald Trump
Janet Bond Arterton, 1966 – judge on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
Janet C. Hall, 1970 – judge on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, chief judge of the District of Connecticut
Glenda Hatchett, 1973 – judge on nationally syndicated television series, ''Judge Hatchett''

Politics

Louisa "Louise" Maria Torrey Taft, 1845 – mother of President William Howard Taft
Frances Perkins, 1902 – first female cabinet member
Marion West Higgins, 1936 – first female Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly
Ella T. Grasso, 1940 – governor of Connecticut; the first female governor elected in her own right in United States history
Jetta Jones, 1947 – lawyer in Chicago, served in Mayor Harold Washington's administration
Joanne H. Alter, 1949 – activist and politician
Nancy Kissinger, 1955 – philanthropist; wife of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
Nita Lowey, 1959 – United States House of Representatives member
Judith Kurland, 1967 – former regional director, United States Department of Health and Human Services
Susan Shirk, 1967 – professor of political science and the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for North Asia during the Clinton administration
Jane Garvey, 1969 – former head of Federal Aviation Administration
Elaine Chao, 1975 – U.S. Secretary of Transportation, 2017–2021, U.S. Secretary of Labor, 2001–2009; director of the Peace Corps, 1991–1992; former national director, United Way
Susan Longley, 1978 – state senator and judge of probate from Maine
Karen Middleton, 1988 – legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado
Mona Sutphen, 1989 – Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Obama administration
Mahua Moitra, 1998 – member of Indian parliament, Lok Sabha
Rabiya Javeri Agha, 1983 – a member of Pakistan Administrative Service, Pakistan Administrative Service
Laura Loomer – alt right conspiracy theorist

Writers

Edna Dean Proctor, 1847 – poet
Emily Dickinson – poet
Emily Gilmore Alden, 1855 – author and educator
Julia Harris May, 1856 – poet, teacher, school founder
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman – novelist and short story writer
Louise Lamprey, 1891 – writer, children's literature
Anne W. Armstrong – novelist
Caroline Henderson, 1901 – Dust Bowl author
Alice Geer Kelsey, 1918 – writer, children's literature
Charlotte Wilder, 1919 – poet
Kathryn Irene Glascock, 1922 – poet
Constance McLaughlin Green, 1925 – historian who won the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for History for Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878
Roberta Teale Swartz, 1925 – poet
Virginia Hamilton Adair, 1933 – poet
Martha Whitmore Hickman, 1947 – non-fiction author
Nancy McKenzie, 1948 – Arthurian legend author
Jean Rikhoff, 1948 – author
Martha Henissart, 1950 – mystery author writing under the pen name of Emma Lathen with Mary Jane Latsis
Nancy Bauer, 1956 – non-fiction author
Elizabeth Topham Kennan, 1960 – author writing under the pen-name of Clare Munnings with Jill Ker Conway
Nancy Bond, 1966 – writer, children's literature
Olivia Mellan, 1968 – author of six books on money psychology
Patricia Roth Schwartz, 1968 – poet
Kathleen Eagle, 1970 – romance novelist
Marisabina Russo, 1971 – writer, children's literature
Wendy Wasserstein, 1971 – playwright who won the 1989 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for The Heidi Chronicles
Lynne Barrett, 1972 – author
Susan Shwartz, 1972 – science fiction and fantasy author
Gjertrud Schnackenberg, 1975 – poet
Kathleen Hirsch, 1975 – non-fiction author
Judith Tarr, 1976 – science fiction and fantasy author
Carol Higgins Clark, 1978 – mystery author
Lan Cao, 1983 – novelist
Suzan-Lori Parks, 1985 – playwright who won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Topdog/Underdog
Liz Fenwick, 1985 – novelist
Deborah Harkness, 1986 – author of the New York Times best selling novel A Discovery of Witches
Sehba Sarwar, 1986 – novelist
C. Leigh Purtill, 1988 – young adult author
Sabina Murray, 1989 – screenwriter; wrote screenplay for The Beautiful Country
Sherri Browning Erwin, 1990 – author of Thornbrook Park and Jane Slayre, member of Romance Writers of America
Tahmima Anam, 1997 – author
Susan J. Elliott, 2000 – non-fiction author
Betsy James, writer
Hanna Pylväinen, 2007 – author of We Sinners
Katy Simpson Smith, ?2018 – novelist
Hayeon Lim, 2017 – South Korean socialite and author

Notable faculty, past and present

Artists

Leonard DeLonga – professor of art
William Churchill Hammond – organist, choirmaster, chairman of music department
(Charles) Denoe Leedy – concert pianist and music journalist
Harrison Potter – concert pianist and accompanist
David Sanford – professor of music
Emmett Williams – artist in residence 1975–1976

Athletics

Mary Ellen Clark – former head diving coach; diver who won two Olympic bronze medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1996 Summer Olympics

Authors, actors, poets, and playwrights

Martha Ackmann – author and journalist
Awam Amkpa – actor and playwright
W.H. Auden – poet
James Baldwin – Five Colleges faculty and novelist
Sven Birkerts – author, The Gutenberg Elegies
Joseph Brodsky – winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature, and Poet Laureate of the United States for 1991–1992
Luis Cernuda – poet
Anita Desai – novelist
Anthony Giardina – novelist
John Irving – author of The Cider House Rules, and The World According to Garp
Denis Johnston – playwright
Brad Leithauser – author, poet
Margaret Chai Maloney – author
Jaime Manrique – author, poet
Mary Olivia Nutting – librarian and historian
Valerie Martin – novelist and short story writer
Mary Jo Salter – poet and a coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry
Bapsi Sidhwa – novelist
Paul Smyth – poet
Ada L. F. Snell – poet
Genevieve Taggard – poet
Peter Viereck – 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Terror and Decorum and professor of Russian History
Richard Weber – Irish poet; visiting lecturer from 1967 to 1970
Douglas Whynott – author

Education

Eunice Caldwell Cowles – assistant to Mary Lyon in the founding of Mount Holyoke Female Sminary
Robert Hess – president of Brooklyn College
Mary Lyon – founder of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837
Vivian Blanche Small – president, Lake Erie College
Beverly Daniel Tatum – president of Spelman College

Historians

Humanities

Christopher Benfey – professor of English
Peter Berek – professor of English
Marion Elizabeth Blake – classics professor
Flora Bridges – taught Greek and English
Gordon Keith Chalmers – professor of English
Carolyn Collette – professor of English
Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze – philosopher
Leah Blatt Glasser – dean of first-year studies and lecturer in English
Jeannette Augustus Marks – professor of English
Mary McHenry – professor of English
Indira Viswanathan Peterson – professor of Asian Studies
William H. Quillian – professor of English
Clara F. Stevens – professor of English, department head
Ellen Bliss Talbot – professor of Philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology for 32 years
Jean Wahl – philosopher
Donald Weber – professor of English
Jon Western – professor of international relations
Mary Gilmore Williams – professor of Greek

Journalists

Todd Brewster – journalist, author, film producer, and current senior visiting lecturer in journalism

Politics

Shirley Chisholm – U.S. representative, 1968–1983, founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and simultaneously the first woman and the first African-American to run for U.S. president
Ellen Deborah Ellis – founder and first chair of the political science department at the college
Jean Grossholtz – professor emeritus of politics; bodybuilder who won a silver medal at the 1994 Gay Games
W. Anthony Lake – U.S. National Security Advisor, 1993–1997
Christopher Pyle – professor of politics, journalist and whistleblower
Margaret Rotundo – Maine State legislator
Cyrus Vance – U.S. secretary of state, 1977–1980

Sciences and social sciences

A. Elizabeth Adams – zoologist
Katherine Aidala – physicist
Mildred Allen – physicist
Elisabeth Bardwell – astronomer
Susan R. Barry – neurobiologist
Grace Bates – mathematician
John Bissell Carroll – psychologist
Jill Bubier – environmental scientist
Patty Brennan – evolutionary biologist
Cornelia Clapp – zoologist and marine biologist
Janet Wilder Dakin – zoologist, youngest sister of Thornton Wilder and Charlotte Wilder
Ethel B. Dietrich – economist, foreign service officer
Melinda Darby Dyar – planetary geologist, mineralogist, and spectroscopist
Joanne Elliott – mathematician
Alice Hall Farnsworth – astronomer, director of the John Payson Williston Observatory
Anna Lockhart Flanigen – chemistry professor from 1903 to 1910
Dorothy Hahn – organic chemist
Anna J. Harrison – organic chemist, first female President of the American Chemical Society
Olive Hazlett – mathematician
Amy Hewes – economist
Karen Hollis – psychologist
Janice Hudgings – physicist, former associate dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke College
Elizabeth Laird – head of the physics department from 1903 to 1940
Flora Belle Ludington – librarian
Emilie Martin – mathematician
Mark McMenamin – paleontologist and geologist
Ann Haven Morgan – zoologist
Lucy Taxis Shoe Meritt, classical archaeologist and Greek scholar
Kerstin Nordstrom – physicist
Donal O'Shea – mathematician
Harriet Pollatsek – mathematician
Becky Wai-Ling Packard – educational psychologist
Lucy Weston Pickett – chemist
Ellen P. Reese – psychologist
Margaret M. Robinson – mathematician
Lydia Shattuck – botanist, founding member of the American Chemical Society
Mignon Talbot – paleontologist who recovered and named the only fossils of the dinosaur Podokesaurus holyokensis
Abby Howe Turner – founder of Mount Holyoke College's department of physiology
Esther Boise Van Deman – archeologist
Anne Sewell Young – astronomer, director of the John Payson Williston Observatory
Antoni Zygmund – mathematician, co-founder of the Chicago school of mathematical analysis

Actors

Michael Burns – Moondoggie in Gidget Gets Married, 1972

Presidents

A number of individuals have acted as head of Mount Holyoke. Until 1888, the term "principal" was used. From 1888 to the present, the term "president" has been used.
Table notes:

Commencement speakers

The following is a list of Mount Holyoke College commencement speakers by year.