Notable Alumnae/i

Hanna H. Gray
Class of 1950 • AB
American historian of Renaissance and Reformation political thought. 10th President of the University of Chicago and President Pro Tempore of Yale University from 1977–1978. She was the first woman to hold an executive office at both universities and the first woman to serve as president of the University of Chicago. One of the first women to hold a full presidency at a major university, she received the Medal of Liberty and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Adrian Tinsley
Class of 1958 • AB
President of Bridgewater State College from 1989 until 2002 and was their first woman president. She founded the Women's Studies program at the University of Maryland. She founded the HERS program, which trains and advocates for women in academia.

Drew G. Faust
Class of 1968 • AB
First woman president of Harvard University. Founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and named one of the world's 100 most powerful women by Forbes, reaching 33 in 2014.

Soraya M. Coley
Class of 1981 • Ph.D.
Sixth president of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Appointed in 2019 to the California Future Work Commission.

Evelyn Jones Rich 
Class of 1954 • AB
American educator, civil rights and labor activist. Evie was the first Black residential student on BMC's campus.

Maya Ajmera
Class of 1989 • AB
Founder, Global Fund for Children, CEO, Society for Science.

Sil Lai Abrams
Class of 2021 • AB
Abrams is a domestic violence awareness activist and National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) award-winning writer. She is a sought after speaker on sexual assault, domestic violence, race, and depictions of women of color in the media and has spoken at over 300 organizations and universities around the United States. She regularly provides television commentary on gender violence and has been profiled in numerous magazines, including The Hollywood Reporter, EBONY, Redbook, Modern Woman, and ESSENCE. The Root praised Abrams for her use of “social media to protest the narrative that Black women’s realities can be defined by dysfunctional entertainment”, and she has served on the Board of Directors for two of the nation’s largest victim services nonprofit organizations, Safe Horizon and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Susan Horwitz
Class of 1958 • AB
Susan Band Horwitz ’58, an internationally renowned molecular pharmacologist, did groundbreaking research on the drug Taxol, which has been used to treat cancers of the ovary, breast, and lung in millions of cancer patients worldwide. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and has received numerous prestigious awards.

Shelby B. Jakoby
Class of 1962 • AB
Shelby Jakoby (who professionally went by Shelby Berger) is a retired principal investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She joined the NIH immediately after receiving her PhD in 1968. Shelby was chief of the section on genes and gene products and was responsible for discovering several important factors about the HIV virus. She retired in 1991.

Susan I. Rotroff
Class of 1968 • AB
MacArthur Genius. Classical archaeologist whose scholarly study and fieldwork have established critical chronologies for ancient Athenian pottery.

Salima Ikram
Class of 1986 • AB
Salima is a professor, archaeologist, author, and adventurer. As a founder of the Animal Mummy project at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, she has emerged as one of the leading scholars in Egyptian funerary archaeology and is the world's expert in animal mummies. She has been featured in over 30 documentaries, series, and specials on Egypt, Pyramids, Mummies, and Animal Mummies. And has also written numerous articles and a series of children’s books.

Elaine C. Showalter
Class of 1962 • AB
American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She influenced feminist literary criticism in the United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics, a term describing the study of "women as writers".

Carolyn Meadow
Class of 1968 • AB
Lynne Meadow is a theater producer, director, and teacher. She stepped down in 2025 as the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), where she has been responsible for directing and producing over 600 New York and world premieres since 1972. She has accepted every major theatre award on behalf of the company; under her leadership, MTC’s productions have been awarded 23 Tony Awards, 39 Drama Desk Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes. Lynne has also directed productions for The New York Shakespeare Festival, the Alliance Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, and the O’Neill Theatre Center.

Jessica B. Harris
Class of 1968 • AB
American culinary historian, college professor, cookbook author and journalist. Winner of two James Beard awards, her book High on the Hog was adapted into a TV series on Netflix in 2020. Her research on food of the African diaspora is foundational in culinary history.

Paula A. Vogel
Class of 1973 • NG
American playwright. She has received the Pulitzer Prize as well as nominations for two Tony Awards. In 2013 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Ellen Kushner
Class of 1977 • NG
Ellen is an American writer of fantasy novels. Her second novel, Thomas the Rhymer, won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. From 1996 until 2010, she was the host of the radio program Sound & Spirit, distributed by Public Radio International. Since then she has produced award winning musical audio dramas and co-edited award winning anthologies. She is actively involved in the interstitial art movement. She is the co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation.

Catherine G. Murdock
Class of 1988 • AB
American author who has become most famous for her young adult and children's novels. Her first young adult novel was Dairy Queen (2006), which was followed by two sequels. She has written more than eight popular novels for young adults. Sister of Elizabeth Gilbert.

Katherine Luber
Class of 1992 • Ph.D.
President of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Former director of the National Gallery of Art in DC.

Debora de Sola von Habsburg
Class of 1992 • AB
Debora is a multicultural writer, director, producer, and actor. In 2014, Debora founded Pollination Pictures, a production company that develops films that portray an array of social, cultural and environmental issues, expand perceptions about women and aim to inspire positive change. Archduchess by marriage.

Sarah L. Jones
Class of 1995 • NG
Sarah Jones is an American playwright, actress, film director, and podcast host. She may be best known for her multi-character solo performances and her Tony Award-winning Broadway show Bridge & Tunnel (2006). She is also the writer, director, and star of the 2022 hybrid documentary film Sell/Buy/Date, based on her critically acclaimed play of the same name. Her performances have taken place at the White House, World Economic Forum, and other global venues. Jones is the founder of Foment Productions, a media company focused on narrative justice and community healing. In 2024, she launched America, Who Hurt You? (AWHY), a podcast and live performance series exploring American identity through interviews and original character monologues.

Trapeta B. Mayson
Class of 1995 • M.S.S.
Liberian-American social worker and poet. Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2019.

Séan A. Hemingway
Class of 1997 • Ph.D.
American archaeologist and a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The author of numerous writings about ancient Greek art, he has also edited several books by his grandfather, Ernest Hemingway.

Michelle C. Zauner
Class of 2011 • AB
Michelle Chongmi Zauner is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and author, known as the lead vocalist of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast. Her 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, spent 60 weeks on The New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list. In 2022, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the Innovators category.

Sari L. Horwitz
Class of 1979 • AB
Sari is an investigative reporter for the Washington Post. Horwitz joined The Post’s investigations unit in 2006 after 23 years at the newspaper, where she had reported on crime, homeland security, education, and social services. Among Horwitz’s other awards are the Robert F. Kennedy Grand Prize for reporting on the disadvantaged and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal and three Pulitzer Prizes.

Carol D. Leonnig
Class of 1987 • AB
American investigative journalist for the Washington Post.  2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting that revealed the NSA's expanded spying on Americans. Leonnig also received Pulitzer Prizes for National Reporting in 2015 and 2018.

Betsy J. McKay
Class of 1987 • MA
Reporter for the Wall Street Journal, covering health and public health. She won a Pulitzer in 1999 for her coverage of Russia's financial crisis.

Sarah L. Schenck
Class of 1987 • AB
Documentary filmmaker.

Neda E. Ulaby
Class of 1993 • AB
American reporter for National Public Radio, covering arts, cultural trends and digital media.

Maggie J. Siff
Class of 1996 • AB
American actress. Her most notable television roles have included department store heiress Rachel Menken Katz on the AMC drama Mad Men, Dr. Tara Knowles on the FX drama Sons of Anarchy for which she was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and psychiatrist Wendy Rhoades on the Showtime series Billions.

Sheena M. Joyce
Class of 1998 • AB
Sheena M. Joyce is an American film producer and director based in Philadelphia, who, with partner Don Argott founded a two-person video-production company named 9.14 Pictures in 2002. They have won numerous awards, the documentary "Kelce" about recently retired Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles, has earned two Sports Emmy nominations for outstanding long documentary and outstanding editing and is the most-watched documentary ever on Amazon’s Prime Video in the United States, debuting at No. 1 in 2023. About another recent film, Thick Skin, The Representation Project, a gender watchdog group, touted the production as “a must-watch for the powerful insights and storytelling.”

Margaret C. Hoover
Class of 2001 • AB
 American political commentator, political strategist, media personality, author, and great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president. She is author of the book American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party, published by Crown Forum in 2011. Hoover hosts PBS's reboot of the conservative interview show Firing Line.

Jessica Tarlov
Class of 2006 • AB
Tarlov is the Vice President of Research and Consumer Insights at Bustle Digital Group. She worked on Boris Johnson's 2008 London mayoral campaign before serving as a research assistant to political analyst Douglas Schoen, who encouraged Fox News to bring her on as a guest. After her first appearance in 2014, Tarlov became a frequent presence across the network, was named a Fox News contributor in 2017, and became a rotating co-host of The Five in January 2022 alongside Harold Ford Jr.

Fatima Siad
Class of 2008 • AB
Fatima Siad is a Somali-born fashion model and contestant from season 10 of America's Next Top Model. She came in second runner-up and was the last contestant eliminated in the spin-off competition Modelville. Siad is known for her outspokenness and striking beauty. She has spoken candidly about colorism, displacement, and the complexities of African identity.

Mindy T. Fullilove
Class of 1971 • AB
Social Psychiatrist with a focus on how social and environmental factors impact mental health. Currently a professor of Urban Policy and Health at the New School, she conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities and their impact on mental health.

Carolyn G. Goodman
Class of 1961 • AB
American politician who served as mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada, from 2011 until 2024.

Barbara P. Robinson
Class of 1962 • AB
American attorney, first woman to become partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, and first woman to be president of the Bar Association of NYC. She broke new ground by establishing the Debevoise flex-time program for child-rearing attorneys, one of the first of its kind in New York City.

Angela U. Kane
Class of 1970 • AB
German diplomat and was formerly the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and Under-Secretary-General for Management in the United Nations.

Margaret M. Morrow
Class of 1971 • AB
Following 18 years of service on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California bench and five years as President and CEO of Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono law firm,  Judge Margaret M. Morrow partially retired in 2021 and became available as a mediator, arbitrator, and private judge through the Judicate West  Alternative Dispute Resolution provider based in Los Angeles, CA.

Allyson Y. Schwartz
Class of 1972 • M.S.S.
American Democratic Party politician who represented parts of Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2015 and Northeast and Northwest Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania Senate from 1991 to 2005. She has finished second in a statewide Democratic Party primary twice: for United States Senate in 2000 and for Governor in 2014.

Beryl A. Howell
Class of 1978 • AB
American attorney and jurist who serves as a senior United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was appointed to the District of Columbia federal court in 2010 by President Barack Obama, and she served as its chief judge from 2016 to 2023.

Lindsay P. Northover
Class of 1981 • Ph.D.
British academic, Liberal Democrat politician, member of the House of Lords.

James H. Sills
Class of 1981 • Ph.D.
American politician who served as the first African-American mayor of Wilmington, Delaware. He previously served in the Delaware House of Representatives from 1984 to 1992.

Bernadette C. Sargeant
Class of 1983 • AB
Bernadette is a prominent African American investigator and litigator currently at Stinson Law, specializing in workplace discrimination and harassment and violations of internal codes of conduct. Previously served as counsel to several government agencies, including the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional  Responsibility and the Ethics Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Karen F. Kornbluh
Class of 1984 • AB
Karen Kornbluh is a visiting fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology. She served until January 2025 as Principal Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Director of the National Artificial Intelligence Office. She previously served as Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), spearheading the first global internet policymaking principles and launching the OECD Gender Initiative. She was Policy Director for then-Senator Barack Obama, and served as a senior official at the Treasury Department and Federal Communications Commission, where she negotiated early internet policies. She chaired the boards of both the Open Technology Fund and Radio Free Europe, and ran programs on technology and society at the Council on Foreign Relations, New America, and the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. She is a Washingtonian “Tech Titan,” and was profiled in a New York Times article titled “Fighting for Economic Equality.”

Emily M. Murase
Class of 1987 • AB
Emily Murase is the executive director of the Japantown Task Force. She formerly worked for 15 years as director of the San Francisco County Commission on the Status of Women and a member of the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, where she quadrupled its budget to $10 million and worked with community advocates and government officials. The FBI San Francisco honored in 2019 for her work with their Director’s Community Leadership Award.  Emily is widely known for her tenure as the first Japanese American to be elected to the San Francisco Board of Education, where she served for eight years, including as president in 2015. In the 1990s, she served in the federal government as telecommunications specialist for the Federal Communications Commission and as director for international economic affairs for the National Security Council/National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, she was in the corporate world as a network systems account executive for AT&T Japan.

Betsy A. Hodges
Class of 1991 • AB
Betsy was the 47th mayor of Minneapolis, sworn in on January 2, 2014.  She won on a platform addressing inequality in the City of Minneapolis, advocating for economic justice, and improving access to quality education. During her first year in office, Betsy spearheaded efforts to improve police-community relations and is advocating for expanding voting rights, implementing parental leave policies, and backing solutions to gun violence and climate change. These are all things she continues to fight for as a community activist now that she is out of office.

Namita Luthra
Class of 1991 • AB
Nan is an attorney and women’s rights advocate. She is vp of operations and former board member of Monumental Women, which successfully put the first monument to real women in NYC's Central Park in 2000 and has created a virtual women's history trail. She is a member of the President’s Council of the New York Hall of Science. She is a former staff attorney of the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU.

Tselane Mokuena
Class of 1995 • MLSP
South African ambassador to Jordan.

Nina M. Jankowicz
Class of 2011 • AB
Nina Jankowicz is head of the American Sunlight Project, a pro-democracy organization. She briefly led the Department of Homeland Security’s disinformation unit under the Biden administration. She is the author of: How to Lose the Information War and How to Be a Woman Online and she is knowledgeable and fearless.

Mary Elizabeth Taylor
Class of 2011 • AB
Mary Elizabeth Taylor is an American political aide who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs from 2018 to 2020. She resigned on July 3, 2020 in protest of the handling of the George Floyd protests by President Donald Trump. She previously served in the Trump White House as the Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs of Nominations.

Betsy Z. Cohen
Class of 1963 • AB
Betsy is the founder of Bancorp and served as CEO until 2014. She is widely recognized as the visionary behind the development of private-label affinity group programs for commercial banking clients. She pioneered services for four main business segments: health care solutions, payment solutions, payment acceptance and institutional banking. 

Susan K. Barnes
Class of 1976 • AB
Founding executive of Apple Computers, amongst other accomplishments.

Linda A. Hill
Class of 1977 • AB
Linda is an internationally recognized expert on leadership, organizational management and business innovation. She uses her research and deep expertise in these areas to inform economic development and highlight how to improve the lives of those who live in disinvested communities. Linda is a professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is the faculty chair of the HBS Leadership Initiative. 

Ana P. Botin
Class of 1981 • AB
Ana Botin is chair of the Santander Group and executive director of Banco Santander, which she has grown to be the largest bank in Europe. She was unanimously appointed executive chair in September 2014 after the death of her father. She is the first woman in Spain to chair a financial group and the fourth generation of her family to run the company. She was ranked 19th on Fortune's list of 100 Most Powerful Women in 2023.

Eleanor Haller-Jorden
Class of 1981 • AB
Tabi is the president and CEO of The Paradigm Forum GmbH (TPF), a global consultancy and think tank operating at the nexus of talent innovation, social justice and workplace redesign. She was named a Sage Fellow in Design & Environmental Analysis at Cornell University and holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Sonali D. De Rycker
Class of 1995 • AB
Sonali is a partner at Accel Partners where she specializes in next generation financial services, early internet, digital media, and software markets. She is considered to be one of Europe's top female venture capitalists and is #25 on Forbes Midas List and has appeared on the list every year since it was launched in 2017.

Agnes W. Gathaiya
Class of 1996 • AB
Agnes is a business transformation leader who recently (January 2025) stepped back from her high-profile role as country director – East Africa for Google based in Kenya. She pivoted to tech after a career in financial services; she had been the CEO of Pesalink, the instant payment platform which she helped grow to be the most used platform in Kenya.

Sumi Paek DeBenedittis
Class of 1997 • AB
Read Her Alumna Spotlight

Megan Elise Gorman
Class of 1998 • AB
Megan is the founding partner of Chequers Financial Management, a fee-only planning firm that specializes in high net worth and ultra-high net worth families in San Francisco. She is a regular contributor to Forbes, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and other financial publications. She is the author of the best selling All the Presidents' Money.

Danny Tang
Class of 2007 • AB
Danny was cofounder and the first employee of VSPO, an Esports company started in 2016. Danny spearheaded the company’s global expansion strategy, reaching markets in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Esports are now included in major events like the Asian Games, the Esports World Cup, and the Olympic Esports Games. Danny became CEO in October 2024 after serving as CFO for eight years. At that time the company was renamed Hero Esports to reflect the globalization and evolution of the industry. Hero Esports is a member of the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) which Danny serves on. Danny has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Asian-Pacific Women-Powered Leaders, and in 2024 she was inducted into the Esports Hall of Fame by the renowned esports media outlet Esports Insider.

Visit the Alumnae/i Success Stories page to read more about the accomplishments of Bryn Mawr graduates.

No. Bryn Mawr has thousands of accomplished alumnae/i, and this page features only a representative selection.

Yes. Current Bryn Mawr students can connect with alumnae/i through Mawrter Connect, the College's networking and mentoring platform. Students can build professional connections, seek career advice, explore industries, and learn from alumnae with a wide range of experiences and expertise.