64 Notable alumni of Hampshire College
Updated: June 16, 2026 EliteDegrees
Hampshire College is ranked #2,206 in the world and #566 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 64 notable alumni from Hampshire College sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Hampshire College won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Mark Kriegsman
1966-. (aged 60)
engineer
Mark Edwin Kriegsman is an American entrepreneur, computer programmer, inventor, writer, and former Director of Engineering at Veracode.
2. Thomas H. Stoner Jr
1960-. (aged 66)
writer
Thomas H. Stoner Jr. is lead director and a co-founder, along with Nobel laureate David Schimel of the Jet Propulsion Lab and other leading climate experts, of Entelligent, a global provider of Smart Climate indexes, predictive equity portfolio analytics and advanced data on climate risk and climate transition. He was CEO of Entelligent from 2017 to October 2023. Prior to...
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3. James Estrin
1957-. (aged 69)
photographer
James Estrin is a photographer, writer, filmmaker, and academic. He is a New York Times senior staff photographer and founder of Lens, The New York Times photography blog. Estrin was part of a team that won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for a national series of articles entitled “How Race Is Lived In America." He is also the co-executive producer of...
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4. Lucy-Ann McFadden
1952-. (aged 74)
researcher
astronomer
science writer
Lucy-Ann Adams McFadden is an American astronomer and planetary scientist. An employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, she also founded the Science, Discovery & the Universe Program within the University of Maryland, and the Explore-It-All Science Center, a children's science program.
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5. Dawn M. Liberi
1954-. (aged 72)
diplomat
Dawn M. Liberi is a diplomat, international development expert and former United States Ambassador to Burundi. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on July 10, 2012, and confirmed by the Senate October 19, 2012.
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6. E.V. Day
1967-. (aged 59)
printmaker
sculptor
E.V. Day is an American, New York-based installation artist and sculptor. Day's work explores themes of feminism and sexuality, while employing various suspension techniques and reflecting upon popular culture. She is known for site specific installations in notable institutions including the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, Philip Johnson's Glass House, the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria,...
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7. Tom Hanway
1961-. (aged 65)
banjoist
Tom Hanway was born on August 20, 1961, in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up in Larchmont, Westchester County, New York, and attended Hampshire College. He is an American 5-string banjoist, composer, author, and an originator of "Celtic fingerstyle" banjo. In 1998, he and luthier Geoff Stelling co-designed the Stelling Tom Hanway SwallowTail banjo, available in both standard and deluxe models, used...
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8. Joshua Beckman
1971-. (aged 55)
poet
Joshua Beckman is an American poet.
9. Maggie Thrash
writer
novelist
children's writer
comics artist
Margaret Thrash is an American writer of young adult fiction and memoirist, best known for her graphic novel memoir Honor Girl.
10. Vanessa Northington Gamble
1953-. (aged 73)
physician
Vanessa Northington Gamble is a physician who chaired the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee in 1996.
11. Lisa Shannon
1975-. (aged 51)
writer
Lisa J. Shannon is an American author, human rights activist, and speaker known for her work in the international women's movement, including founding Run for Congo Women, co-founding Sister Somalia with Fartuun Adan Abdisalan, co-founding and being CEO of Every Woman Treaty. She is author of A Thousand Sisters: My Journey Into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a...
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12. Amy Denio
1961-. (aged 65)
singer
guitarist
saxophonist
composer
jazz musician
Amy Denio is a Seattle-based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Her inspirations include world music, and is mainly known as a vocalist, accordionist and saxophone-player. Among her current musical involvements are The Tiptons Sax Quartet (formerly The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet) and Die Resonanz Stanonczi, a...
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13. Aaron Lansky
1955-. (aged 71)
bibliophile
book collector
Aaron Lansky is the founder of the Yiddish Book Center, an organization he created to help salvage Yiddish language publications. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989 for his work.
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14. Matthew Specktor
1966-. (aged 60)
novelist
screenwriter
Matthew Specktor is an American novelist and screenwriter.
15. Shalini Kantayya
film director
Shalini Kantayya is an American filmmaker and environmental activist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose films explore human rights at the intersection of water, food, and renewable energy. Kantayya is best known for her debut feature documentary, Catching the Sun.
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16. John Reed
1969-. (aged 57)
novelist
John Reed is an American novelist. He is the author of four novels: A Still Small Voice (2000), Snowball's Chance (2002) with a preface by Alexander Cockburn, The Whole (2005), and All the World's a Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare (2008). His fifth book, Tales of Woe (2010), is a collection of twenty-five stories, chronicling true stories of...
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17. Peter Cole
1957-. (aged 69)
linguist
poet
translator
Peter Cole is a MacArthur-winning poet and translator who lives in Jerusalem and New Haven. Cole was born in 1957 in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended Williams College and Hampshire College, and moved to Jerusalem in 1981. He has been called "one of the handful of authentic poets of his own American generation" by the critic Harold Bloom. In a...
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18. Noah Falstein
1957-. (aged 69)
designer
Noah Falstein is a game designer and producer who has been in the video game industry since 1980, winning "Game of the Year" titles for multiple games such as Battlehawks 1942 and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. He has designed games for multiple platforms, including arcade video games, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS.
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19. Cylin Busby
1970-. (aged 56)
children's writer
writer
journalist
Cylin Busby is an author and screenwriter, known for the best-selling true crime memoir, The Year We Disappeared, written with her father John Busby.
20. Stephen Gardner
1975-. (aged 51)
composer
business executive
transportation worker
guitarist
Stephen J. Gardner is an American transportation executive and musician who served as chief executive officer of Amtrak from 2022 to 2025.
21. David Callahan
1965-. (aged 61)
journalist
David Callahan is an American writer and editor. He is the founder and editor of Inside Philanthropy, a digital media site. Previously, he was a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy group based in New York City that he co-founded in 1999. He is also an author and lecturer. He is best known as the author of the books...
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22. Naomi Wallace
1960-. (aged 66)
writer
playwright
poet
screenwriter
Naomi Wallace is an American playwright, screenwriter and poet from Kentucky. She is widely known for her plays, and has received several distinguished awards for her work.
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23. Nicholas Merrill
1972-. (aged 54)
Nicholas Merrill is an American system administrator, computer programmer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Calyx Internet Access, an Internet and hosted service provider founded in 1995, and of the non-profit Calyx Institute. He was the first person to file a constitutional challenge against the National Security Letters statute in the USA PATRIOT Act and consequently the first person...
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24. Jeffrey Hollender
1954-. (aged 72)
teacher
writer
entrepreneur
Jeffrey Hollender is an American entrepreneur, author, and environmental activist who co-founded Seventh Generation Inc.
25. S. Bear Bergman
1974-. (aged 52)
playwright
university teacher
writer
novelist
poet
S. Bear Bergman is an American author, poet, playwright, and theater artist. He is a trans man, and his gender identity is a main focus of his artwork.
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26. Alex Rivera
1973-. (aged 53)
filmmaker
film director
Alex Rivera is a Sundance award-winning American film maker and MacArthur Fellow, best known for his films about labor, immigration, and politics.
27. Autre Ne Veut
1982-. (aged 44)
musician
Arthur Ashin, known professionally as Autre Ne Veut, is an American singer-songwriter and musician from New York City.
28. Madeleine Baran
reporter
podcaster
investigative journalist
journalist
Madeleine Baran is an American investigative journalist. She is best known as the lead reporter for the APM podcast In the Dark. She has received accolades including three Peabody Awards, a Gracie Award and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards for her reporting.
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29. George Bonanno
university teacher
psychologist
George A. Bonanno is a professor of clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, U.S. He is responsible for introducing the controversial idea of resilience to the study of loss and trauma. He is known as a pioneering researcher in the field of bereavement and trauma. The New York Times on February 15, 2011, stated that the current science of...
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30. Andrea Pallaoro
1982-. (aged 44)
film director
screenwriter
Andrea Pallaoro is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Hannah, his second feature and the first of an intended trilogy of films centering on a female lead, premiered at the 74th Venice Film Festival and proceeded to win numerous awards including the Coppa Volpi for Charlotte Rampling, who performed as the leading character, the award for Best Cinematography at the...
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31. Mike Ladd
composer
rapper
record producer
musician
Mike Ladd is an American alternative hip-hop artist. Based in Paris, France, The Guardian once described him as "the king of the hip-hop concept."
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32. Hasok Chang
1967-. (aged 59)
historian
philosopher
historian of science
Hasok Chang is a South Korea-born American historian and philosopher of science currently serving as the Hans Rausing Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a board member of the Philosophy of Science Association. He previously served as president of the British Society for the History of Science from 2012 to...
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33. Benjamin Mako Hill
1980-. (aged 46)
assistant professor
computer scientist
non-fiction writer
researcher
engineer
Benjamin Mako Hill is a free software activist, hacker, author, and professor. He is a contributor and free software developer as part of the Debian and Ubuntu projects as well as the co-author of three technical manuals on the subject, Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible, The Official Ubuntu Server Book, and The Official Ubuntu Book.
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34. Jeph Jacques
1980-. (aged 46)
comics writer
comics artist
Jeffrey Paul "Jeph" Jacques is an American-Canadian cartoonist who writes and draws the webcomic Questionable Content. Jacques has formerly created the webcomics indietits from 2005 to 2007, Derelict Orbital Reflector Devices and Alice Grove.
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35. Jessamyn West
1968-. (aged 58)
librarian
online community manager
software maintainer
digital librarian
Jessamyn Charity West is an American library technologist and writer known for her activism and work on the digital divide. She is the creator of librarian.net. She is the Vermont Chapter Councilor of the American Library Association, and was Director of Operations at the group blog MetaFilter from 2005 to 2014. West owns MetaFilter.
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36. Alan Edelman
1963-. (aged 63)
computer scientist
mathematician
university teacher
Alan Stuart Edelman is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Principal Investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) where he leads a group in applied computing. In 2004, he founded a business called Interactive Supercomputing which was later acquired by...
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37. Heather Boushey
1970-. (aged 56)
economist
Heather Marie Boushey is an American economist who served as a member of President Joe Biden's Council of Economic Advisers and the Chief Economist for the Invest in America Cabinet at the White House. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she was the president and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, which she co-founded with John Podesta. She...
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38. Jason Salkey
1962-. (aged 64)
film actor
actor
television actor
Jason Salkey is an English actor, best known for playing Harris, the "educated rifleman", in the television series Sharpe. Salkey has also published a book and video diaries about working in Sharpe alongside Sean Bean.
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39. Eula Biss
1977-. (aged 49)
writer
university teacher
Eula Biss is an American non-fiction writer who is the author of four books.
40. Gary Marcus
1970-. (aged 56)
psycholinguist
neuroscientist
psychologist
university teacher
Gary Fred Marcus is an American psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author, known for his research on the intersection of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence (AI).
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41. Daniel Horowitz
1954-. (aged 72)
lawyer
Daniel Aaron Horowitz is an American defense attorney who has represented several high-profile clients including talk show host Michael Savage and is a frequent commentator in the media on criminal cases in the news. In 2014 Horowitz was named a Top 100 Lawyer by the National Trial Lawyers. He is listed as a contributor to Criminal Law, Practice & Procedure....
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42. Petros S. Kokkalis
1970-. (aged 56)
businessperson
politician
Petros S. Kokkalis is a Greek businessman and former member of the European Parliament.
43. Ed Droste
1978-. (aged 48)
singer-songwriter
composer
Edward Droste is an American singer-songwriter, licensed therapist, and musician, best known for founding the rock band Grizzly Bear. The group began as the solo effort of Droste with the release of 2004's Horn of Plenty, originally released on Kanine Records. All songs were written and performed by Droste. By 2005, the group expanded into a four-piece, with Droste still...
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44. Zachary Cole Smith
1984-. (aged 42)
composer
model
guitarist
singer
Zachary Cole Smith is an American musician best known for being the founder, frontman, and principal songwriter of the indie rock band DIIV. Previously, he played in the bands Soft Black and Beach Fossils. Initially called Dive, the band started as Smith's solo recording project. Smith released his debut studio album with DIIV, Oshin, in 2012, which combined elements of...
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45. Daniel Licht
1957-2017 (aged 60)
composer
film score composer
Daniel Licht was an American soundtrack composer and musician, best known for writing the score of Showtime TV drama series Dexter.
46. Rod Roddenberry
1974-. (aged 52)
television producer
executive producer
screenwriter
Eugene Wesley "Rod" Roddenberry Jr. is an American television producer and the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. He is the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett and is an executive producer on Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Khan and Star...
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47. Charlie Clouser
1963-. (aged 63)
percussionist
manufacturer
composer
keyboardist
engineer
Charles Alexander Clouser is an American keyboardist, composer, record producer, and remixer. He worked with Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails from 1994 to 2000, and is a composer for film and television; among his credits are the score for the Saw franchise and American Horror Story. Clouser was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance in 1997.
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48. Danny Tamberelli
1982-. (aged 44)
musician
television actor
podcaster
voice actor
film actor
Danny Tamberelli is an American actor and musician. He is known for his portrayal of Little Pete Wrigley in The Adventures of Pete & Pete from 1989 to 1996 and for his work as a cast member of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That from 1997 to 2000. He is also known for his portrayal of Jimmy De Santa...
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49. Eugene Mirman
1974-. (aged 52)
television director
television actor
actor
director
voice actor
Eugene Boris Mirman is a Russian-American actor, comedian, and writer, known for playing Yvgeny Mirminsky on Delocated and Gene Belcher on the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.
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50. David Shulkin
1959-. (aged 67)
physician
official
David Jonathon Shulkin is an American physician who served as the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2017 to 2018 under President Donald Trump, after serving as the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health from 2015 to 2017, under President Barack Obama. On March 28, 2018, Trump dismissed Shulkin from his position by tweet, and announced that Physician...
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51. Barry Sonnenfeld
1953-. (aged 73)
photographer
film producer
film actor
film director
cinematographer
Barry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He originally worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers before directing films such as The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993), the Men in Black trilogy (1997–2012),Wild Wild West (1999), and RV (2006).
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52. Fred Melamed
1956-. (aged 70)
stage actor
television actor
voice actor
actor
film actor
Fred Melamed is an American actor. After spending most of his early career primarily as a renowned voice over artist, and occasionally playing small roles in films, notably in seven films directed by Woody Allen, he established himself as a preeminent character actor with his role as Sy Ableman in the Coen brothers' A Serious Man (2009). Other notable film...
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53. Dennis Boutsikaris
1952-. (aged 74)
stage actor
television actor
voice actor
actor
film actor
Dennis Boutsikaris is an American stage and film actor. A two-time Obie Award Winner, he has appeared on and off Broadway, being the first American to play Mozart in Amadeus. On television he is best known for his role on Better Call Saul as Rich Schweikart. He has also narrated over 200 audiobooks.
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54. Elliott Smith
1969-2003 (aged 34)
singer
guitarist
writer
composer
singer-songwriter
Steven Paul Smith, known as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he gained popularity. Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, though he also played piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. He had a distinctive vocal style characterized...
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55. Ken Burns
1953-. (aged 73)
film producer
manufacturer
film director
cinematographer
actor
Kenneth Lauren Burns is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the National Endowment for the Humanities and distributed by PBS. Burns lives in the small town of Walpole, New Hampshire.
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56. Jon Krakauer
1954-. (aged 72)
writer
mountaineer
explorer
journalist
Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of bestselling nonfiction books—Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven; and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest disasters...
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57. Liev Schreiber
1967-. (aged 59)
voice actor
stage actor
actor
television actor
writer
Isaac Liev Schreiber is an American actor. He has received accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
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58. Lupita Nyong'o
1983-. (aged 43)
film actor
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o is an actress who has received various accolades, including an Actor Award, an Academy Award and a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award.
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59. Chuck Collins
1959-. (aged 67)
writer
Chuck Collins is an American author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is also co-founder of Wealth for Common Good. He is an expert on economic inequality in the US, and has pioneered efforts to bring together investors and business leaders...
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60. Peter Friedman
1949-. (aged 77)
film actor
television actor
stage actor
Peter Friedman is an American stage, film, and television actor. He made his Broadway debut in the Eugene O'Neill play The Great God Brown in 1972. His other Broadway credits include roles in The Rules of the Game (1974), Piaf (1981), The Heidi Chronicles (1989), and Twelve Angry Men (2004). He earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a...
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61. Lee Smolin
1955-. (aged 71)
astronomer
theoretical physicist
non-fiction writer
university teacher
Lee Smolin is an American theoretical physicist, a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo, and a member of the graduate faculty of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. Smolin's 2006 book The Trouble with Physics criticized string theory's viability. He has made contributions to quantum...
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62. Joshua Seth
1970-. (aged 56)
magician
comedian
voice actor
Joshua Seth Freedman is an American voice actor, comedian, motivational speaker, and author.
63. Christopher Young
1954-. (aged 72)
music educator
film score composer
composer
Christopher Young is an American composer of film and television scores.
64. Eileen Brady
1961-. (aged 65)
politician
Eileen Brady is an American businesswoman who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Portland, Oregon, in 2012.