32 Notable alumni of CUNY Graduate School and University Center
Updated: June 16, 2026 EliteDegrees
CUNY Graduate School and University Center is ranked #5,158 in the world and #1,359 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 32 notable alumni from CUNY Graduate School and University Center sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with CUNY Graduate School and University Center won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Girardin Jean-Louis
researcher
Girardin Jean-Louis is an American academic who is a professor in the department of population health and psychiatry at New York University. He is director of the Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program and the "Program to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research" Institute. In 2020, he was named as one of the Community of Scholars' most inspiring...
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2. Edwin Battistella
1955-. (aged 71)
editor-in-chief
editor
linguist
university teacher
Edwin Battistella is an American linguist known for work on markedness, syntax, and language attitudes. He is an emeritus professor of Humanities and Culture at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon.
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3. Gerard Scharfenberger
1958-. (aged 68)
archaeologist
politician
Gerard P. Scharfenberger is an American politician, adjunct professor and Republican Party politician who has served in the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 13th Legislative District since 2020, replacing Amy Handlin. Scharfenberger had previously served on the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders and as Mayor of Middletown Township.
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4. Reba White Williams
1936-2024 (aged 88)
art collector
writer
Reba White Williams was an American author, philanthropist, and expert on fine art prints. As a novelist, her influences include Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. She and her husband, Dave H. Williams, built the world's largest private collection of American prints; they also founded the Print Research Foundation. She and Dave Williams are also co-creators of the Willie Morris...
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5. Lisa Farrington
art historian
Lisa Farrington is an American art historian, specializing in African-American art, Haitian art, and women's art. She is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art and Music at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Farrington is one of the major scholars of Faith Ringgold, is the author of several books on African-American art, and is one of only...
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6. David E. Rowe
1950-. (aged 76)
historian
university teacher
mathematician
historian of mathematics
David E. Rowe is an American mathematician and historian. He studied mathematics and the history of science at the University of Oklahoma, and took a second doctorate in history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He served as book review editor, managing editor, and editor of the journal Historia Mathematica. In 1992, Rowe was appointed...
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7. Eleanor Sobel
1946-. (aged 80)
politician
Eleanor Sobel is a Democratic former member of the Florida State Senate. Sobel representing the 33rd District, which includes Davie, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, and Pembroke Pines in southeastern Broward County, from 2012 to 2016, having previously represented the 31st District from 2008 to 2012. Before winning election to the Florida Senate, Sobel served as a member of the Florida House...
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8. Gina Neff
1971-. (aged 55)
academic
sociologist
university teacher
information scientist
Gina Neff is the executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge. Neff was previously Professor of Technology & Society at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford. Neff is an organizational sociologist whose research explores the social and organizational impact of new communication technologies, with...
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9. Karl Widerquist
1965-. (aged 61)
university teacher
economist
philosopher
Karl Widerquist is an American political philosopher and economist at Georgetown University on its campus in Qatar. He is best known as an advocate of basic income, but is also an interdisciplinary academic writer who has published in journals in fields as diverse as economics, politics, philosophy, and anthropology. He is a consistent critic of propertarianism, right-libertarianism, social contract theory,...
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10. Roman Popadiuk
1950-. (aged 76)
diplomat
Roman Popadiuk is an American diplomat of Ukrainian descent. Popadiuk served as the first United States Ambassador to Ukraine under George H. W. Bush, from 1992 to 1993. From 2015 until 2017, he was a principal at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP's subsidiary Morgan Lewis Consulting, and prior to 2015 he was the principal at Bingham Consulting. Since late 2018...
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11. Albert Nofi
1944-. (aged 82)
writer
Albert A. Nofi, is an American military historian, defense analyst, and designer of board and computer wargaming systems.
12. Lee A. Feinstein
1959-. (aged 67)
diplomat
Lee Andrew Feinstein is an American policy-scholar, and former diplomat and senior official at the US Departments of State and Defense. Feinstein held senior positions on leading Democratic presidential campaigns in 2008. He served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from 2009 to 2012, appointed by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. Feinstein was the inaugural...
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13. Randy Martin
1957-2015 (aged 58)
dancer
political activist
sociologist
university teacher
Randy Martin was a professor of Art and Policy at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, socialist activist, and dancer.
14. Gregory Pardlo
1968-. (aged 58)
poet
writer
translator
Gregory Pardlo is an American poet, writer, and professor. His book Digest won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His poems, reviews, and translations have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Poet Lore, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and on National Public Radio. His work has been praised for its “language simultaneously urban and highbrow… snapshots of a life that is...
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15. Gustavo Rivera
1975-. (aged 51)
politician
Gustavo Rivera is an American politician. A Democrat, he has represented District 33, covering the Bronx neighborhoods of Kingsbridge Heights, Kingsbridge; Fordham, University Heights; Van Nest, Tremont, East Tremont; North Riverdale and parts of Morrisania and Parkchester; in the New York State Senate since first being elected in 2010.
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16. James Kugel
1945-. (aged 81)
university teacher
linguist
James L. Kugel is professor emeritus in the Bible department at Bar Ilan University in Israel and the Harry M. Starr Professor Emeritus of Classical and Modern Hebrew Literature at Harvard University. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
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17. Hal Foster
1955-. (aged 71)
art historian
art critic
university teacher
teacher
journalist
Harold Foss "Hal" Foster is an American art critic and historian. He was educated at Princeton University, Columbia University, and the City University of New York. He taught at Cornell University from 1991 to 1997 and has been on the faculty at Princeton since 1997. In 1998 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
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18. Kevin Parker
1967-. (aged 59)
politician
Kevin Parker is an American politician from the state of New York. He is a member of the New York State Senate representing the 21st district, which comprises portions of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush, Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Park Slope, and Windsor Terrace. A Democrat, Parker was first elected to the Senate in 2002.
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19. Janet Biehl
1953-. (aged 73)
ecofeminist
graphic artist
printer
environmentalist
scientist
Janet Biehl is an American author, copyeditor, translator, and artist. She authored several books and articles associated with social ecology, the body of ideas developed and publicized by Murray Bookchin. Formerly an advocate of his antistatist political program, she broke with it publicly in 2011 and now identifies as a progressive Democrat.
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20. Nancy Fraser
1947-. (aged 79)
university teacher
feminist
philosopher
political scientist
sociologist
Nancy Fraser is an American philosopher, critical theorist, feminist, and the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor Emerita of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City. Widely known for her critique of identity politics and her philosophical work on the concept of justice, Fraser is also a staunch critic of contemporary...
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21. Maggie Nelson
1973-. (aged 53)
essayist
university teacher
art critic
writer
poet
Maggie Nelson is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, aesthetic theory, philosophy, scholarship, and poetry. Nelson received a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, and several other major awards in the years before that.
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22. Mark M. Goldblatt
1957-. (aged 69)
journalist
Mark Meyer Goldblatt is an American journalist, novelist, theologian and educator. He attended Queens College of the City University of New York from 1974 to 1979, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English. After brief stints as a proofreader and copyeditor, he enrolled in the CUNY Graduate Center in 1983 and was awarded a doctorate in English literature in...
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23. Merle Hoffman
1946-. (aged 80)
publisher
Merle Hoffman is an American journalist and activist.
24. Jean Halley
1967-. (aged 59)
historian
memoirist
Jean Halley is an American writer and sociologist based in New York City. Her work revolves around issues of social power, violence, trauma, gender, and animal studies. Halley is also a professor of sociology at the College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
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25. Sharon Sutton
1941-. (aged 85)
architect
Sharon Egretta Sutton, is an American architect, educator, visual artist, and author. Her work is focused on community-based participatory research and design. She is a professor emerita at the University of Washington. In 1984, she became the first African American woman to become a full professor in an accredited architectural degree program while teaching at the University of Michigan. She...
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26. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
1947-. (aged 79)
art collector
Patricia "Patty" Phelps de Cisneros is a Venezuelan-born Dominican arts and education advocate. Since the 1970s Cisneros has led initiatives to expand access to educational and cultural resources, including large scale literacy and teacher training programs across the region. She is also recognized for her work as an art collector, with a particular focus on Latin American modernist and contemporary...
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27. Jane McAlevey
1964-2024 (aged 60)
author
sociologist
university teacher
trade unionist
Jane F. McAlevey was an American union organizer, author, and political commentator. She was a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and a columnist at The Nation.
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28. Michael Szenberg
1934-. (aged 92)
economist
Michael Szenberg is a professor emeritus and a former chairman of the Finance and Economics department at Lubin School of Business in Pace University, New York. He is the author and editor of 22 books on economics, and was the editor of The American Economist published by Omicron Delta Epsilon.
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29. Lisa Nakamura
academic
university teacher
Lisa Nakamura is an American professor of media and cinema studies, Asian American studies, and gender and women’s studies. She teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she is also the Coordinator of Digital Studies and the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Cultures.
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30. Taína Caragol
art historian
curator
Taína Caragol also known as Taína Beatriz Caragol-Barreto, is a Puerto Rican art historian, curator, and author. She currently serves as the curator for Latino Art and History at the National Portrait Gallery, since 2013. She previously held positions at Museum of Modern Art and at the Museo de Arte de Ponce.
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31. Ryūhō Ōkawa
1956-2023 (aged 67)
poet
writer
philosopher
psychic
film producer
Ryuho Okawa was a Japanese religious and political leader who was the CEO and founder of the Happy Science and the Happiness Realization Party. He was also an author and chairman of two companies affiliated with the organization, New Star Production and ARI Production.
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32. Adil Shamoo
1941-. (aged 85)
biochemist
Adil E. Shamoo is an Iraqi biochemist with an interest in biomedical ethics and foreign policy. He is currently a professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland.
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