100 Notable alumni of Occidental College

Laura Boykin Okalebo is an American computational biologist who uses supercomputing and genomics to help farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has studied the evolution of the agricultural pest whitefly and identified genetic differences between various species. She works with African scientists to develop computing and genomics skills across the continent, and is a Senior TED fellow.

John Joseph Clague PhD FRSC OC is a Canadian authority in Quaternary and environmental earth sciences. He is a professor of earth sciences at Simon Fraser University and an emeritus scientist of the Geological Survey of Canada.

William Markley "Mark" Bellamy is a retired American diplomat and US government senior official. A career Foreign Service Officer, he served as United States ambassador to Kenya from 2003 to 2006 under President George W. Bush.

Lorraine Lois Foster is an American mathematician. In 1964 she became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from California Institute of Technology. Her thesis advisor at Caltech was Olga Taussky-Todd. Foster's Erdos number is 2.

Ronald Howard Whitney is an American retired hurdler and sprinter. Known for his fast finish, he was sixth in the 400 m hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He had entered the race as one of the favorites, having been ranked #1 in the world in 1967 and winning the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the event for...

Erling Wold is a San Francisco-based composer of opera and contemporary classical music. He is best known for his later chamber operas, and his early experiments as a microtonalist.

Demion Clinco is an American politician, historic preservationist, philanthropist, and business leader from the state of Arizona. Clinco's social innovation included reestablishing the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation in 2008 and launching Tucson Modernism Week in 2012 and working in the higher-education sector. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinco served in the Arizona House of Representatives, as a member for...

Ninja Louise Jorgensen was an American volleyball player. She played for the United States national team at the 1967 Pan American Games and the 1968 Summer Olympics.

William George Bonelli was a California Republican politician and former member of the California State Board of Equalization who fled to Mexico to avoid arrest on a corruption indictment.

Christian Frederick "Chris" Gulker was an American photographer, programmer, writer, and pioneer in electronic publishing.

Etta Lee Frost was an American silent film actress, known for supporting roles.

Tui St. George Tucker was an American modernist composer, conductor, recorder virtuoso and creator of unique musical instruments. Her compositions often feature microtonality and are strongly influenced by jazz, Buddhism, the music of Medieval Europe, and more. She developed special recorders with extra holes, in addition to unique fingerings for modern recorders to allow for the playing of quarter tones,...

Jean Mercer is an American developmental psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at Stockton University. Founder of the advocacy group Advocates for Children in Therapy, she is known as an advocate for adopted children and those who come from the foster care system, and as an outspoken critic of attachment therapy.

J. Grant Woods was an American attorney and politician who served as Attorney General of Arizona from 1991 until 1999. Woods was a moderate-to-liberal Republican who served as John McCain's chief of staff when he was a congressman. He endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election and Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election.

Madeline Lancaster is an American developmental biologist studying neurological development and diseases of the brain. Lancaster is a group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. Since October 2025, Lancaster has served as Joint Head of the LMB's Cell Biology Division.

David M. Louie is an American lawyer who served as Attorney General of Hawaii from 2011 to 2014.

Namandjé N. Bumpus is an American pharmacologist who served as the Principal Deputy Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. She was previously director of the department of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she held the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren professorship in pharmacology.

Thomas Mankell "Tom" Rees was an American lawyer and politician who served six terms as a U.S. Representative from California from 1965 to 1977.

Chris Norby is an American politician and educator. He served on the Fullerton City Council (1984–2002) including three years as mayor, on the Orange County Board of Supervisors (2003–2010), on the California State Assembly (2010–2012).

Robert Edward Badham was an American politician from California. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from the Orange County-based 40th district from 1977 to 1989.

Richard A. Falkenrath Jr. served as deputy commissioner of counter-terrorism of the New York City Police Department from 2006 to 2010. He was the third person to hold this position. His predecessors were Frank Libutti and Michael A. Sheehan.

Vance Mueller is an American former professional football player who was a running back with the Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Occidental Tigers.

Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor is a paleontologist who works as a curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

Donald Cary Williams, usually cited as D. C. Williams, was an American philosopher and a professor at both the University of California Los Angeles (from 1930 to 1938) and at Harvard University (from 1939 to 1967).

Gary Brent Dalrymple is an American geologist, author of The Age of the Earth and Ancient Earth, Ancient Skies, and National Medal of Science winner.

Elizabeth Mary "Bessie" Beatty was an American journalist, editor, playwright, and radio host.

Robert Hutchinson Finch was a Republican politician from La Canada Flintridge, California. From 1967 to 1969, he served as the 38th lieutenant governor of California. Following Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968, he was appointed Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1969. He was the Counselor to the President from 1970 until 1972. During the 1976 California United States...

David G. Armstrong is an American podiatric surgeon and academic known for his work in diabetic foot care, wound healing, and limb preservation. He is a Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Neurological Surgery at the University of Southern California (USC), where he directs the university's Center to Stream Healthcare in Place (C2SHiP), a National Science Foundation–funded initiative focused on advancing...

Ronald Leslie Botchan was an American football player, coach, and official. He played professionally as a linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) from 1960 to 1962. As an official, Botchan worked as an umpire for nearly his entire NFL career and wore the number 110. Regarded as the "NFL's best umpire" by the media, Botchan was assigned to a...

Lawrence Clark Powell was an American librarian, literary critic, bibliographer and author of more than 100 books. Powell "made a significant contribution to the literature of the library profession, but he also writes for the book-minded public. His interests are reflected in the subjects that recur throughout his writings; these are history and travel, especially concerning the American Southwest, rare...

Sharon Gaber is an American urban planning scholar, currently serving as the 5th chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte since July 2020.

Lewis Daniel "Lew" Sargentich is an American legal scholar. He has been a professor at Harvard Law School since 1973, where he teaches courses tort law and jurisprudence. Sargentich is well known for his record as a student at Harvard Law School, where he both named and first analyzed the First Amendment "overbreadth doctrine" in a student note.

Dorothy Louise Vennard Lamm is an American feminist, women's rights activist, educator, author, and speaker. She was First Lady of Colorado during her husband Richard Lamm's three terms as Governor of Colorado (1975–1987). In 1998, was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in the election for United States Senate in Colorado. She wrote a weekly column for The Denver Post from 1979...

Vinai K. Thummalapally was the U.S. Ambassador to Belize. He is the first Indian American ambassador in U.S. history.

Janis Lynn Sammartino is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

David W. Berkus is an American angel investor and venture capitalist from California. He is credited with technological innovations in computer software for the hotel and lodging industries and was recognized by that industry's Hospitality Financial Technology Professionals association with its International Hall of Fame designation. Inc. Magazine described him as a "super angel" in 1996.

Ural Alexis Johnson was a United States diplomat.

Fred Price DuVal is an American businessman, civic leader, education leader and author. He is president of DuVal and Associates, a senior advisor to Dentons Law, chairman of Gunnison Copper, a director of DriveTime Auto Group and twice former chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents. He recently completed a term on the Board of AGB, the Association of Governing...

Janet Dhillon is an American lawyer who is the director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. She served as a commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2019 to 2022 and as the commission's chair from May 2019 to January 2021. Prior to that, Dhillon was the executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Burlington Stores.

Patt Morrison is a journalist, author, and radio-television personality based in Los Angeles and Southern California.

Marsha Johnson "Marty" Evans is a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy. Following her retirement from the Navy, she served as executive director of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1998 to 2002, and president and CEO of the American Red Cross from 2002 to 2005.

Carmen Chu is an American politician serving as City Administrator of the City and County of San Francisco. She previously served as the city's assessor-recorder, where she was the only Asian-American assessor elected to serve among the 58 counties in the State of California. Prior to being elected assessor-recorder, Chu served as a member of the San Francisco board of...

Olin Douglas Browne is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and now plays on the PGA Tour Champions.

Ara James Najarian is an American attorney, former city council member, and four-time Mayor of Glendale, California. As an Armenian-American politician, he has advocated measures to better represent and integrate the diverse Armenian community in Glendale, which is now one of the largest in the world outside Armenia. In 2010, he was invited to meet with the president and prime...

Andrea Elliott is an American journalist and a staff writer for The New York Times. She is the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in both Journalism and Letters (2022). She received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for a series of articles on an Egyptian-born imam living in Brooklyn and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction...

Guy Hughes Carawan Jr. was an American folk musician and musicologist. He served as music director and song leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.

Dean Bartlett Cromwell, nicknamed "Maker of Champions", was an American athletic coach in multiple sports, principally at the University of Southern California (USC). He was the head coach of the USC track team from 1909 to 1948, excepting 1914 and 1915, and guided the team to 12 NCAA team national championships (1926, 1930–31, 1935–43) and 34 individual NCAA titles. He...

Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Some sources give her name as Eleanor Kay Helin.)

Amy Keating Rogers is an American television writer who has contributed to several notable animated television series and films, including episodes of The Powerpuff Girls and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She has been nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2009, Rogers directed the documentary film Jason Bateman Thinks I'm Dead, which chronicles her attempts to re-establish contact...

Monica Rodriguez is an American politician in California. She currently serves as a Los Angeles City Council member, and represents the 7th district. The district is located in the San Fernando Valley, and includes the neighborhoods of Pacoima, Sunland-Tujunga, Sylmar, Shadow Hills, Sun Valley, Lake View Terrace, and Mission Hills. Rodriguez was sworn in on July 1, 2017.

Carrie Vaughn is an American writer, the author of the urban fantasy Kitty Norville series. She has published more than 60 short stories in science fiction and fantasy magazines as well as short story anthologies and internet magazines. She is one of the authors for the Wild Cards books. Vaughn won the 2018 Philip K. Dick Award for Bannerless, and...

George Edward Alcorn Jr. was an American physicist, engineer, inventor, and professor. He taught at Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia, and worked primarily for IBM and NASA. Alcorn is credited with over 30 inventions and 8 patents resulting in his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015.

Fred Lawrence Whipple was an American astronomer, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Among his achievements were asteroid and comet discoveries, the "dirty snowball" hypothesis of comets, and the invention of the Whipple shield.

Alphonzo Edward Bell Sr. was an American oil multi-millionaire, real estate developer, philanthropist, and champion tennis player. The westside Los Angeles residential community of Bel Air is named after him, as well as the Southern California communities of Bell and Bell Gardens.

Mark Dery is an American writer, lecturer and cultural critic. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the term "culture jamming" and is generally credited with having coined the term "Afrofuturism" in his essay "Black to the Future" in the anthology Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture. He writes about media and visual culture, especially...

Ramona Gonzalez is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California who is currently based in Oakland.

Lucy Nicole Schwartz is an American singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She has become well known for writing and performing original songs for film and TV, including songs for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Nashville, Parenthood, Shrek Forever After and What Maisie Knew.

Alphonzo Edward Bell Jr. was a Republican United States Representative from California. Bell represented Malibu and the influential Westside region of Los Angeles for eight terms, from 1961 to 1977.

Janette Sadik-Khan is a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (2007–2013) and an advisor on transportation and urban issues. She works for Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy established by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that advises mayors around the world to improve the quality of life for their residents. She serves as chairperson for the National...

Louise Erickson was an American radio and film actress.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite is an American filmmaker. She has directed documentaries and feature films, and she also produces, edits, writes, and directs for television and documentary films. Her films often deal with social, cultural, and environmental issues relating to real life events. Her most notable film is Blackfish (2013), which received a BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary.

Kristina A. Kvien is an American diplomat who had served as United States Ambassador to Armenia. She previously served as United States Chargé d’Affaires to Ukraine from May to June 2019 and from January 2020 to May 2022. From June 2019 to January 2020, she was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the United States in Kyiv.

Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen is an active United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the first Asian woman on a United States federal appellate court. She was identified as a potential Supreme Court nominee.

Homer Lea was an American author of works on geopolitics who became a military advisor and general in the army of Sun Yat-sen.

Rosalind Wiseman is an American author, public speaker, and consultant known for her work on youth social dynamics, leadership, and cultural dignity. She is the best-selling author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers Queen Bees and Wannabes—which inspired the Mean Girls movie and musical franchise—and Masterminds & Wingmen, which was named Best Parenting Book by Books for...

Yasmin Vossoughian is an American television journalist currently serving as a national reporter for NBC News.

Denise Campbell Bauer is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to France and Monaco from 2022 to 2025. Bauer served as Ambassador of the United States to Belgium from 2013 to 2017. After being nominated by President Barack Obama, she was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 2013; she was sworn in the...

Ann Carter was an American child actress who worked with dozens of film stars, compiling an "unimaginably distinguished résumé" despite an acting career which lasted only slightly more than a decade. She is best known for her starring role as Amy Reed in the film The Curse of the Cat People (1944), and also acted alongside stars including Humphrey Bogart,...

Samuel "Sammy" Lee was an American physician and diver. He was the first Asian American man to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States (the second Asian American to win a gold medal overall) and the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in Olympic platform diving.

Steve Coll is an American journalist, historian, academic, and executive.

Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. was an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California, as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983.

Loren Lester is an American screen, stage, and voice actor who made his Broadway debut in the 2024 revival of Cabaret.

Joseph Rohde is an American themed entertainment designer and artist, serving as the Experience Architect for Virgin Galactic. Rohde was previously a veteran executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of The Walt Disney Company that designs and builds Disney's theme parks and resort hotels. Rohde's formal title was Executive Designer and Vice President, Creative.

John Houston Ingle was an American actor best known for his roles as scheming patriarch Edward Quartermaine in the ABC soap opera General Hospital and Mr. Threehorn, the father of the main character Cera in the Land Before Time.

John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet known for his work about the central Californian coast. Much of his poetry was written in narrative and epic form; however, he is also known for his shorter verse and is considered an icon of the environmental movement.

Adah Almutairi is a scientist and was an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her work focuses on nanomedicine, nanotechnology, chemistry and polymer science.

Ronald Brian Underwood is an American film and television director, known for directing such films as Tremors (1990), City Slickers (1991), Heart and Souls (1993), and Mighty Joe Young (1998).

John Gregory Branca is an American entertainment lawyer and manager who specializes in representing rock and roll acts. He is the co-executor of the estate of Michael Jackson and Chairman of The Michael Jackson Company. Branca has represented over 30 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees including The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Bee Gees and The Doors.

Maurissa Tancharoen is an American writer, producer, and actress. She is known for her work as the co-creator, show runner, and executive producer of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which aired on the ABC television network for 7 seasons from 2013 to 2020. She is from Los Angeles.

Lindy West is an American writer, comedian, and activist. She is the author of the essay collections Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman and The Witches Are Coming and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. Topics she writes about include feminism, popular culture, and the fat acceptance movement.

Ann Dusenberry is an American film, television, and stage actress. She appeared in about 50 film and television productions from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. Among her best-known roles are those of Tina Wilcox in the horror film Jaws 2 (1978), Stevie in the romantic drama film Heart Beat (1980) and Valerie in the thriller Cutter's Way (1981)....

Angela Kang is an American television writer known for serving as showrunner on the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead for the final three seasons.

George Garfield Nader, Jr. was an American actor and writer. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 to 1974, mainly action and adventure film roles. He won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor for the film Four Guns to the Border (1954).

Sam Rubin was an American journalist who served as the entertainment reporter for the KTLA Morning News and as a television host of entertainment talk shows and specials. He reported on the entertainment industry for over thirty years and interviewed many Hollywood stars. He was also the co-author of two biographies, one on the former first lady Jacqueline Onassis and...

Glenn Corbett was an American actor in movies and television for more than 30 years. He came to national attention in the early 1960s, when he replaced George Maharis in the cast of the popular CBS adventure drama Route 66. He followed this with roles in high-profile films and television shows, including a guest role in the original Star Trek...

James Ernest Mora is an American football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints from 1986 to 1996 and the Indianapolis Colts from 1998 to 2001. Mora was also the head coach of the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars of the first iteration of...

Roger Guenveur Smith is an American actor, director, and writer best known for his collaborations with Spike Lee.

Jason F. Sellards, known professionally by the stage name Jake Shears, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He is best known as the co-lead vocalist of New York City pop-rock band Scissor Sisters, who achieved considerable chart success in the 2000s before their indefinite hiatus in 2012. Since 2017, Shears has pursued a solo career; he released his...

Nik Dodani is an American actor, writer, and comedian known for his roles as Zahid in the Netflix comedy-drama series Atypical, and Pat Patel in the revival of the popular CBS sitcom Murphy Brown.

Jack French Kemp was an American politician, professional football player, and U.S. Army veteran who served as the ninth U.S. secretary of housing and urban development in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party from New York, he previously served nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from...

Will Friedle is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Eric Matthews in the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World (1993–2000).

Sadie Calvano is an American actress, known for her role as Violet Plunkett on the CBS sitcom Mom. In 2016, she played the title role in the television film The Perfect Daughter.

Terrence Vance Gilliam is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, collage animator, and actor. He gained stardom as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman. Together they collaborated on the sketch series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) and the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, also...

Emily Jordan Osment is an American actress, songwriter, and singer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osment began her career as a child actress, appearing in numerous television shows and films, before co-starring as Gerti Giggles in Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002) and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003). She gained recognition for her breakout role...

Victoria "Vicki" Araceli Denise Vann Bradford Turnbough is an American country music artist, entrepreneur, and businesswoman. She has been called the Cinderella of country music and was chosen to appear as a featured artist in a Country Music Television documentary called "Waiting in the Wings." The documentary focuses on the ongoing struggles of the African American music artists in the...

Luke Collis is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the Arena Football League (AFL). He signed with the Spokane Shock as an undrafted free agent in 2012. He played college football at Occidental College after transferring out of University of Nevada, Reno. He was also a member of the Chicago Rush, Knoxville NightHawks, San Angelo Bandits, Tampa...

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.

Howard Fieldstad Ahmanson Jr. is an American Evangelical philanthropist. He is the son of Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., the founder of Home Savings Bank.

Benjamin Géza Affleck is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi (1984–1988). He later appeared in the independent comedy Dazed and Confused (1993) and several Kevin Smith comedies, including...