List of Swarthmore College people

Academia

Presidents

• Patrick Awuah Jr. – president of Ashesi University
• David Baltimore – 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 – 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 – 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 – president of Brown University
• David H. Porter – former president of Skidmore College
• Susan Poser – president of Hofstra University
• Robert Prichard – former president of the University of Toronto
• Lawrence Schall – 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 – dean of the Georgetown University Law Center
• William Boulding – dean of the Fuqua School of Business
• Christopher Edley Jr. – dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law
• Frances Halsband – former dean of the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute
• James C. Hormel – former dean of the University of Chicago Law School
• Stewart J. Schwab – dean and professor of law at the Cornell Law School
• Daniel L. Schwartz – 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 - 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 – 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 – professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; director of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
• Hans Stoll – professor of finance and director of the Financial Markets Research Center at the Owen Graduate School of Managementat
• Robert Storr – dean of the Yale School of Art; curator
• Christopher Udry – 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 – professor of philosophy and women's studies at University of Michigan; MacArthur Fellow 2019
• Dave Bayer – professor of mathematics at Barnard College
• Leo Braudy – professor of English and American literature at the University of Southern California
• Christopher Chyba – professor of astrophysical sciences and international affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
• Robert Cooter – 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 – 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 – professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University
• Lara Estroff – materials scientist and professor at Cornell University
• Sandra Faber – professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz
• Andre Gunder Frank – professor of sociology and economics at the University of Chile; developer of dependency theory and world-systems theory
• Sorelle Friedler – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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
• John Hopfield – 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 – health economist and professor of management at Carlson School of Management
• Peter J. Katzenstein – professor of International Studies at Cornell University; member of the Council on Foreign Relations
• Joshua Landis – 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 – professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education
• David Lewis – professor of philosophy at Princeton University, rated as one of the fifteen most important philosophers in the past 200 years
• Linda Datcher Loury – social economist and professor at Tufts University
• Ray Jackendoff – professor of linguistics at Tufts University
• Robert MacPherson – mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University; recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics
• 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 – 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 – professor of plant pathology at Cornell University
• Barbara Partee – emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Edward C. Prescott – 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 – Duke University biochemistry professor; inventor of Ribbon diagrams
• William Rubinstein – professor of history at Deakin University and the University of Wales
• Michael Schudson – professor of journalism at Columbia University
• Nayan Shah – history professor at the University of California at San Diego
• Herbert W. Smyth – 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 – professor of physics at Oberlin College
• Joseph Takahashi – neuroscientist and professor at Northwestern University
• Peter Temin – 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 – professor of economics at Duke University
• Martin Weitzman – 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 – professor of economics at Stanford University
• Miles Yu – professor of military history and modern China at the United States Naval Academy
• Tara Zahra – history professor at the University of Chicago

Other

• Albert Cook Myers – secretary of the Pennsylvania State Historical Commission
• Brian Tomasik – researcher and ethicist with the Center on Long-Term Risk

Architecture

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

Art

• Bruce Cratsley – photographer specialized in still lives, portraits of friends, and gay life in New York City
• Njideka Akunyili Crosby – visual artist
• Alexandra Grant – visual artist
• Richard Martin – art and fashion historian; former curator-in-chief of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Robert C. Turner

Business and finance

• Dean Baker – 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 – president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates
• John Diebold – founder of Diebold Group, Diebold, Inc., and The Diebold Institute for Public Policy
• John D. Goldman – CEO of Richard N. Goldman & Co. Insurance Services
• Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. – co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
• Rachel Jacobs – CEO of ApprenNet
• William N. Kinnard – author, lecturer, and expert on the topic of real estate valuation
• Eugene M. Lang – founder of REFAC Technology Development Corporation
• Nick Martin – founder and CEO of TechChange
• Thomas B. McCabe – chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; president of Scott Paper
• Arthur S. Obermayer – founder of the Moleculon Research Corporation
• Karen Pence – deputy associate director of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
• William Poole – eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• Thomas Rowe Price Jr. – founder of T. Rowe Price
• Iqbal Quadir – founder of Gonofone and GrameenPhone
• Sam Schulhofer-Wohl – senior vice president and director of financial policy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
• Kate Warne – principal and investment strategist with Edward Jones Investments
• Robert Zoellick – former president of the World Bank
• Danna Azrieli – chair of Azrieli Group

Entertainment

• Joseph Altuzarra – fashion designer, winner of the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award
• Lisa Albert – Emmy Award winning television producer and writer, known for Mad Men, Beautiful People, Living Single, Becker, Murphy Brown, Major Dad
• Mark Alburger – 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 – composer of Off-Broadway musicals
• Marshall Curry – 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 – radio personality and host of the World Cafe
• Steven Gilborn – actor
• Evan Gregory – member of The Gregory Brothers
• Andrew Rose Gregory – member of The Gregory Brothers
• Grant S. Johnson – filmmaker
• Nicholas Kazan – screenwriter
• H. C. Robbins Landon – musicologist
• Stephen Lang – 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 – theater, television, film director, and screenwriter.
• David Linde – film producer; co-founder of Focus Features; co-chair of Universal Studios
• Beth Littleford – actress, former The Daily Show correspondent
• Dana Lyons – independent singer/songwriter
• François Picard – journalist who hosts the The Debate and The World This Week
• Dawn Porter – documentary filmmaker, director of Gideon's Army
• Peter Schickele – Grammy Award winning music composer and satirist, often under the comic pseudonym P. D. Q. Bach
• Aaron Schwartz – actor and director
• Tom Snyder – television producer and founder of Soup2Nuts animation studio
• Darko Tresnjak – Tony Award winning director
• Michael J. Weithorn – television producer and writer for The King of Queens, Family Ties, Ned & Stacey, The Goldbergs
• Jenny Yang – writer and comedian.
• Michał Zadara – theatre director

Law

• Ellen Barry, prison reform advocate; founder of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the National Network for Women in Prison
• Frank H. Easterbrook – judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• Arianna Freeman – judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Eilene Galloway – space law researcher and editor; also taught at the college for two years
• Wilma A. Lewis – former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
• Lara Montecalvo – judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• Alexander Mitchell Palmer – United States Attorney General
• Ellen Ash Peters – chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court
• Jed S. Rakoff – judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Charles F.C. Ruff – 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 – chief judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Mark D. Schwartz – attorney in private practice; former first vice president of Prudential-Bache Securities's public-finance department
• Phil Weiser – Colorado Attorney General
• Jennifer P. Wilson – 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
• Amy Fine Collins – author and contributor at Vanity Fair
• Arthur Chu – columnist
• 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 – executive director of Bitch (magazine)
• Jessica Fisher – poet, translator, critic; winner of the Rome Prize and Yale Series of Younger Poets
• Michael Forster Rothbart – photojournalist
• Jonathan Franzen – novelist, essayist, and author of The Corrections; winner of the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction
• John Freeman – writer, literary critic, former editor of Granta, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf.
• Daisy Fried – poet
• Gregory Gibson – author
• Linda Gordon – historian and author
• Justin Hall – pioneer blogger
• Adam Haslett – short story writer and author; Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award finalist
• John Russell Hayes – poet and librarian
• Marni Hodgkin – children's book editor
• Anick Jesdanun – technology reporter, editor, and the first Internet writer for the Associated Press
• Josef Joffe – editor in chief of Die Zeit
• Christopher Lehmann-Haupt – journalist, book review and obituary editor for The New York Times
• Cynthia Leive – editor in chief of Glamour
• Arnold Kling – founder and co-editor of EconLog
• Helen Reimensnyder Martin – novelist
• Daniel Menaker – fiction editor for The New Yorker and executive editor-in-chief of Random House
• James A. Michener – novelist
• 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 – 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 – head of opinion at The Guardian
• Anna Shechtman – journalist and crossword compiler
• Kenneth Turan – film critic for the Los Angeles Times
• 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 – founder and publisher of Crawdaddy!''
• Mary Wiltenburg – journalist
• Valerie Worth – poet and writer

Medicine

• Margaret Allen – first female heart transplant surgeon
• 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 – 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
• Eugene M. Lang – founder of the I Have A Dream Foundation
• Alice Paul – women's suffrage leader, National Woman's Party founder, and author of first Equal Rights Amendment proposal
• 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 – national finance director of the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton
• David L. Cohen – United States Ambassador to Canada
• 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
• Christiana Figueres – Costa Rican diplomat, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Diana Furchtgott-Roth – 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 – Governor of Hawaii and Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii
• Kevin Hassett – chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
• Rush Holt Jr. – United States House of Representatives
• Leon Henderson – administrator of the Office of Price Administration
• James Hormel – former United States Ambassador to Luxembourg
• John Brady Kiesling – writer, former U.S. diplomat
• Carl Levin – United States Senate
• Carl Levin – United States Senate
• Mary B. Newman – member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
• Amos J. Peaslee – United States 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
• James M. Wilson Jr. – United States 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 – feminist, ethicist, and psychologist
• Rachel Hare-Mustin – feminist psychologist
• Isabel Briggs Myers, co-creator of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator assessment.
• Robert Rescorla – co-creator of the Rescorla-Wagner model

Science and technology

• Christian B. Anfinsen – recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972
• Frank Hastings Griffin – chemist who invented Rayon
• Tyler Lyson – curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
• John C. Mather – senior astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center; recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
• 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
• Newton Morton – population geneticist, one of the founders of the field of genetic epidemiology
• Ted Nelson – pioneer of information technology, computer visionary who coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia".
• G. Raymond Rettew – chemist; pioneered mass production of penicillin during World War II
• Sally Ride – NASA astronaut and physicist, first American woman in space
• Nancy Roman – NASA's first chief of astronomy in the Office of Space Science, considered the "mother of the Hubble Space Telescope"
• Maxine Frank Singer – biochemist and president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Charlotte Moore Sitterly – astronomer who identified chemical elements in the sun using spectroscopy
• Peter J. Weinberger – computer scientist; former head of CS research at Bell Labs; inventor of the AWK programming language

Sports

• Ed Ayres – ultramarathon runner; winner of JFK 50 Mile; editor and publisher of Running Times magazine
• Robin Carpenter – 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
• Ladule Lako LoSarah – international footballer for the Republic of South Sudan
• Morgan Langley – professional soccer player with the Philadelphia Union
• Lee MacPhail – baseball executive, former president of American League; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Tiny Maxwell – College Football Hall of Fame player and referee
• Curly Ogden – professional baseball pitcher
• Jack Ogden – professional baseball player

Swarthmore faculty and staff

Presidents

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

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

• Solomon Asch, psychology
• Nathalie Anderson, English literature
• W. H. Auden, poet, literature; professor from 1942 to 1945
• Monroe Beardsley, philosopher of art
• 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
• Nannerl O. Keohane, political science
• Robert Keohane, political science
• Wolfgang Köhler, psychology
• 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