100 Notable alumni of Ohio University

Yvette McGee Brown is a judge who became the first African American female justice on the Ohio Supreme Court when she took office on January 1, 2011. She was the founding president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and was a judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas for nine years.

Wilson Shannon was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician from Ohio. He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the 14th and 16th governor of Ohio. He was the first Ohio governor born in the state. He was the second governor of the Kansas Territory. He failed to stop an attack by pro-slavery forces and...

Taylor Price is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio Bobcats and was selected by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft. He was also a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Seattle Seahawks.

Frank Conrad Baumholtz was an American professional baseball and basketball player. He was an outfielder for Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds (1947–49), Chicago Cubs (1949 and 1951–55) and Philadelphia Phillies (1956–57). He played two seasons of professional basketball for the Youngstown Bears of the National Basketball League during the 1945–46 season, and the Cleveland Rebels of the Basketball Association of...

Vernon Sykes is an American politician who served as the state Senator for the 28th district of the Ohio Senate from 2017 to 2024. The district included Akron, Barberton, Green, Portage Lakes, Sawyerwood, Lakemore and portions of Cuyahoga Falls, Mogadore and Tallmadge in Summit County.

Lee A. Saunders is a leader of the labor movement in the United States. He was elected to succeed Gerald W. McEntee as President of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest and most politically active unions in the AFL-CIO, on June 21, 2012, during the union's 40th International Convention in Los...

Derrick Martin Hall is an American sports executive currently serving as the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Frank Crumit was an American singer, composer, radio entertainer, and vaudeville star. He shared his radio programs with his wife, Julia Sanderson, and the two were sometimes called "the ideal couple of the air."

Ashok Trivedi  is an Indian-American entrepreneur, investor and  philanthropist  best known as the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of  Mastech Inc.  and  IGATE. Born in Lucknow, India, Trivedi graduated from the University of Delhi, before moving to the United States of America where he earned his MBA from Ohio University.

Michael Jay Krasny is a professor and retired American radio host of Forum, a news and public affairs program on San Francisco public radio station KQED-FM, covering current events, politics, and culture from 1993 to 2021. Additionally, Krasny is currently a professor of English literature at San Francisco State University.

William Tang Sharon was a United States senator, banker, and business owner from Nevada who profited from the Comstock Lode.

Michael Harold Schuler was an American basketball coach in both college and the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers from 1986 to 1992 and compiled a win–loss record of 179–159. He won the NBA Coach of the Year Award in 1987, becoming the second rookie coach to be...

Joseph L. Schiavoni is an American politician and judge who served as a member of the Ohio Senate and Ohio Senate Minority Leader. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiavoni was elected in 2020 to serve as a Judge in the Mahoning County, Ohio Court System.

George Shiras Jr. was an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1892 to 1903. At that time of his appointment, he had 37 years of private legal practice but had never judged a case. He is noted for his conservative voting with the majority in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan...

Samuel Sullivan "Sunset" Cox was an American congressman and diplomat. He represented both Ohio and New York in the United States House of Representatives and served as United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Vanessa Córdoba Arteaga is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Beşiktaş.

David John Skal was an American cultural historian, critic, writer, and on-camera commentator known for his research and analysis of horror films, horror history and horror culture.

Rohani binti Abdul Karim is a Malaysian politician who served as the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak and former Ministers Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Mustapa Mohamed and Noh...

Megan Griffiths is an American film and television director who resides in Seattle, and is a board member of Northwest Film Forum.

William Michael O'Neill is an American lawyer, judge and political figure. He was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2012, for a term beginning January 2013. He served as an appellate judge on the Ohio Eleventh District Court of Appeals for 10 years. Twice, O'Neill was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Representative in Ohio's 14th congressional district. He announced...

Charles Taylor Sherman was an American district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Robert Frank Mager [meɪgɜ:] was an American psychologist and author. Concerned with understanding and improving human performance, he is known for developing a framework for preparing learning objectives, and criterion referenced instruction (CRI), as well as addressing areas of goal orientation, student evaluation, student motivation, classroom environment, educational change, performance technology, and instructional design.

Gene A. "Geno" Ford is an American college basketball coach and former college and professional basketball player. He is currently the men's head coach for the Stony Brook Seawolves, a position he has held since 2019. He was previously the head coach at Shawnee State University, Muskingum University (then Muskingum College), Kent State University (2008–2011) and Bradley University (2011–2015).

John Douglas Swofford is an American former college athletics administrator. He served as the athletic director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1980 to 1997 and as the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) from 1997 to 2021.

Kat Tenbarge is an independent American journalist. She previously worked as a senior reporter at Insider and later as a tech and culture reporter for NBC News. She specializes in reporting on internet culture and influencers, including her own views and commentary. Tenbarge has reported on several cases of sexual assault allegations against Internet personalities, and her work and views...

Dow Henry Finsterwald, Sr. was an American professional golfer. He won twelve PGA Tour titles between 1955 and 1963 including the 1958 PGA Championship. He also played on four Ryder Cup teams and served as non-playing captain for the 1977 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Michael William Buckley is an American children's author whose works include The Sisters Grimm, the N.E.R.D.S. book series, and Finn and the Intergalactic Lunchbox. He is also the co-creator of the animated TV series Robotomy.

Philip H. Gordon is an American diplomat and international relations scholar. From March 21, 2022 to January 20, 2025 he served as Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Earlier in his career, he was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2009–2011) and Special Assistant to...

Thomas Ewing Sr. was a National Republican and Whig politician from Ohio. He served in the U.S. Senate and also served as the fourteenth secretary of the treasury and the first secretary of the interior. He is also known as the foster father (and subsequently father-in-law) of famous American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman.

Lee Rich was an American film and television producer, who won the 1973 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy award for The Waltons as the producer. He is also known as the co-founder and former chairman of Lorimar Television.

A. J. Ouellette is an American professional football running back for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He has previously played for the Toronto Argonauts.

Steven Eugene Swisher is an American former professional baseball player and minor league manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Diego Padres from 1974 to 1982. Swisher was elected to the 1976 National League All-Star team with the Cubs but did not play in the game. He is...

Jeffrey Thomas Kuhner is an American talk radio host and political commentator, heard on weekdays from 6 am to 10 am on WRKO AM 680 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the editor of Insight on the News and a regular contributor to the commentary pages of The Washington Times, and his articles have appeared in Human Events, National Review Online,...

Martin Savidge is a Canadian-American television news correspondent.

Clarence Page is an American journalist, syndicated columnist, and senior member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

Sammy Kaye was an American bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line, "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye", became one of the most famous of the Big Band Era. The expression springs from his first hit single in 1937, "Swing and Sway" (U.S. no. 15). He was the first to record and release the standard "Blueberry Hill" in 1940. During World...

Edward James Roye was a Liberian merchant and politician who served as the fifth president of Liberia from 1870 until his overthrow in the 1871 Liberian coup d'état and subsequent death. He had previously served as the fourth Chief Justice of Liberia from 1865 until 1868. He was the first member of Liberia's True Whig Party to serve as president.

Leon Harris is an American journalist and newscaster, most recently with NBC owned-and-operated WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. Harris formerly anchored at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, and at Washington, D.C. ABC affiliate WJLA-TV.

Brandon Hunter was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Mark Christopher Sears is an American professional basketball player for the Wisconsin Herd of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Ohio Bobcats and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Chuck Swirsky is an American–Canadian radio sports announcer. He is the play-by-play voice of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Swirsky's association with Chicago sports started in 1979 with his WCFL AM 1000 talk show, which debuted on August 27 of that year. Outside Chicago, Swirsky called play-by-play for both University of Michigan basketball and football and...

Larry Connor is an American real estate and technology business person, as well as a private astronaut. Connor is the head of the Connor Group, a real estate investment firm located in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Wesley Lowery is an American journalist who has worked at American University, CBS News, and The Washington Post. He was a lead on the Post's "Fatal Force" project that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016. In 2017, he became a CNN political contributor and in 2020 was announced as a correspondent for 60 in 6, a short-form...

Dave Malloy is an American composer, playwright, lyricist, singer, orchestrator, and actor. He has written several theatrical works, often based on classic works of literature. His most well known work is the Tony Award winning Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an electropop opera based on War and Peace. His other works include Ghost Quartet, a song cycle...

Daniel J. White is an American university sports administrator. He is the athletic director for the Tennessee Volunteers. White held the same position at the University at Buffalo from 2012 to 2015 and the University of Central Florida from 2015 to 2021. Prior to his tenure at Buffalo, he was the senior associate athletic director for Ole Miss.

Mahmood Sariolghalam is a professor of international relations at the School of Economics and Political Science in Shahid Beheshti University since 1987. He was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1959. He received his B.A. degree in political science/management from California State University, Northridge in 1980 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from the University of Southern California...

Jerri Lin Nielsen was an American physician with extensive emergency room experience, who self-treated her breast cancer while stationed at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica until she could be safely evacuated.

Donell "D. J." Cooper Jr. is an American professional basketball player for Dewa United Banten BC of the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL). After a successful four years of college basketball at Ohio University, Cooper entered the 2013 NBA draft but was not selected in the draft's two rounds. As a player at Ohio University, Cooper cracked the top 25 all-time...

Jennifer Lynn Lahmers is an American television news reporter, news anchor and model. She was a correspondent on Extra, a syndicated television newsmagazine reporting entertainment news from 2019 to 2023. Before joining Extra, Lahmers co-anchored Good Day Wake Up for Fox station WNYW in New York City and was a reporter and weekend anchor at several local television stations.

Alexander Fernando Pacheco is an American animal rights activist. He is the founder of 600 Million Dogs, co-founder and former chairman of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a member of the advisory board of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Rick Charls is a former American high diver who currently holds the World Record for the Highest Dive from 172 ft / 52 meters.

Mary Ann Murphy is an American ballroom dance champion, accredited dance judge, and a judge and choreographer on the Fox dance competition-reality show So You Think You Can Dance.

Siegfried Fred Singer was an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, trained as an atmospheric physicist. He was known for rejecting the scientific consensus on several issues, including climate change, the connection between UV-B exposure and melanoma rates, stratospheric ozone loss being caused by chlorofluoro compounds, often used as refrigerants, and the...

Michael Mitchell is an American former professional football player who was a safety for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio Bobcats and was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2009 NFL draft. Mitchell spent four seasons each with the Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers, in addition to...

Alan Schaaf, also known as MrGrim, is an American entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and former CEO of the image sharing app and website Imgur.

Robert Earl Brenly is an American baseball sportscaster and a former professional baseball player, coach and manager. He played the majority of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career as a catcher with the San Francisco Giants. After retiring as a player, Brenly worked as a broadcaster with the Chicago Cubs, then as a coach with the Giants, then as a...

Jason Preston is an American professional basketball player for the San Diego Clippers of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Ohio Bobcats.

Joseph Dolce is an American and Australian singer, songwriter, poet and essayist.

Richard Eugene Cole was a United States Air Force colonel. During World War II, he was one of the airmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan, on April 18, 1942. He served as the co-pilot to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the lead airplane of the raid by sixteen B-25 bombers, which for the first time...

Jay Mariotti is an American sports journalist and commentator who currently hosts the sports-related podcast Unmuted. He previously spent 17 years as a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and eight years as a regular panelist on the ESPN sports-talk program Around the Horn.

Jericka Alexis Duncan is an American national TV news correspondent for CBS News in New York City and the sole anchor of the CBS Weekend News.

Jim Dine is an American visual artist. Dine's work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, letterpress, and linocuts), sculpture, and photography.

George Victor Voinovich was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Ohio from 1999 to 2011. He previously served as the 65th governor of Ohio from 1991 to 1998 and as the 54th mayor of Cleveland from 1980 to 1989; he is the last Republican to serve in that office.

Swapna Dutt Chalasani is an Indian film producer known for her work in Telugu cinema. She is the daughter of C. Ashwini Dutt, a well-known Indian film producer and the founder of Vyjayanthi Movies.

Anthony Peter Musante Jr. was an American actor, best known for the TV series Toma as Detective David Toma, Nino Schibetta in Oz (1997), and Joe D'Angelo in As the World Turns (2000–2003). In movies, he achieved fame relatively early in his career, starring or having significant roles in such films as Once a Thief (1965), The Incident (1967), The...

Thomas Lee Wallace is an American film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror genre, directing films such as Halloween III: Season of the Witch and Fright Night Part 2 and also directing the 1990 television miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's epic horror novel It. He is a long-time collaborator of director John Carpenter,...

Betty Thomas is an American director and actress. She is known for her role as Sergeant Lucy Bates on the television series Hill Street Blues, a role for which she was nominated for an Emmy award seven times, winning once. Her latest film (released in 2009), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, was at the time the highest-grossing film ever...

Anna Eileen Heckart was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. Heckart won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Emmy Awards, as well as was nominated for three Tony Awards. In 2000, she received the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre.

Thomas Wade Brennaman is an American television sportscaster, currently the lead announcer for CW Sports college football games. He is the son of former Cincinnati Reds radio sportscaster Marty Brennaman. He served as a play-by-play commentator for Fox Sports from its inception in 1994 through 2020, the television voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks from 1998 to 2006, and as the...

Jonathan Freeman is an American actor and puppeteer. He is known for voicing Jafar in Disney's Aladdin franchise, as well as the Kingdom Hearts franchise and the 2011 Aladdin musical.

Michael Jack Schmidt is an American former professional baseball third baseman who spent his entire 18-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1972 to 1989. Schmidt was a 12-time All-Star and a three-time winner of the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player award (MVP), and he was known for his combination of power hitting and strong...

Alexandra Leigh LaForce is an American journalist, model and beauty queen who won Miss Teen USA 2005. She is a reporter for TNT Sports, covering the NBA on TNT. She was previously the lead reporter for SEC college football games, a courtside reporter for college basketball games, and the host of We Need to Talk on the CBS Sports Network....

Robert Edward Huggins, nicknamed "Huggy Bear", is an American former college basketball coach. He was the head coach at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State, and West Virginia. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American artist. A leading figure of the Pop Art movement, he is best known for his large-scale paintings inspired by comic books, advertisements, and mass-produced imagery. Lichtenstein's art is represented in major museum collections worldwide, and he remains one of the most influential and recognizable artists of the 20th century.

Christopher Joseph Park, better known by his ring name Abyss, is an American retired professional wrestler, who has been employed by WWE as a producer since January 2019. He is best known for his time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

Vanessa Bell Calloway is an American actress. Beginning her career as a dancer, Bell Calloway became known for her film roles as Princess Imani Izzi in the 1988 comedy Coming to America and its sequel. Since then, Bell Calloway appeared in more than 150 film and television productions. She is a nine-time NAACP Image Awards nominee.

Gerald Elliot Heller was an American music manager and businessman. He was best known for his management of West Coast rap and gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A and Eazy-E. He rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s representing Journey, Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison, War, Eric Burdon, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ike & Tina Turner, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Otis Redding, The...

Arsenio Hall is an American comedian, actor and talk show host. He hosted a late-night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show, from 1989 until 1994, and again from 2013 to 2014.

Roger Eugene Ailes was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's 1989 New York City mayoral election. In July 2016, he left Fox News...

Richard Dean Anderson is an American actor. He began his television career in 1976, playing Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, and then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver (1985–1992). He later appeared in films such as Through the Eyes of a Killer (1992), Pandora's Clock (1996), and Firehouse (1997).

Matthew Todd Lauer is an American television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality, in New York City, on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the news anchor for NBC's Today, from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, Lauer was moved from the news desk to the host's chair. He...

Edward Leonard O'Neill is an American actor, comedian, and former football player. Over his career, he has earned four Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Piper Lisa Perabo is an American actress. Following her breakthrough in the comedy-drama film Coyote Ugly (2000), she has starred in films including Lost and Delirious (2001), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), its sequel Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), The Prestige (2006), Looper (2012) and Angel Has Fallen (2019). She starred as CIA agent Annie Walker in the USA...

Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, who has been described as "one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars." He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, a Cannes Film Festival Award...

Logan Alexander Paul is an American influencer, professional wrestler, entrepreneur, boxer, and actor. As a wrestler, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand and is a member of The Vision stable. He is a former WWE United States Champion. He has over 23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Logan Paul Vlogs and has ranked...

Marie Tharp was an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer. In the 1950s, she collaborated with geologist Bruce Heezen to produce the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. Her cartography revealed a more detailed topography and multi-dimensional geographical landscape of the ocean bottom.

Nancy Cartwright, Lady Hampshire FBA, FAcSS is an American philosopher of science. She is a professor of philosophy at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Durham. Currently, she is the past president of the Division for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (DLMPST) of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science...

Kao Kim Hourn CM is a Cambodian diplomat who has served as the Secretary-General of ASEAN since 2023. He previously served two terms as Minister Delegate attached to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia (2013-2022) and two terms as Secretary of State of Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2003-2013). Dr. Kao, his formal Cambodian name,...

Charles Nesbitt Wilson was an American politician and naval officer who was a 12-term Democratic Representative from Texas's 2nd congressional district. Wilson is best known for leading Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation, which during the Carter and Reagan administrations supplied military equipment to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War. His behind-the-scenes...

Vasu Sangsingkeo is a Thai actor, host and singer.

Hsu Shu-hsiang is a Taiwanese political scientist and politician. In December 2024, he became the incumbent Vice President of the Examination Yuan.

Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen is a Saudi Arabian politician who served as secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) from November 2016, when Iyad bin Amin Madani stepped down for health reasons, to 29 November 2020.

Mohammad Eslami is the vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organization in the government of President Raisi and was the Minister of Roads and Urban development and the Governor of Mazandaran province in the government of Hassan Rouhani.

Marlis Rahman was an Indonesian politician and academic. He served as Governor of West Sumatra for eight months between 2009 and 2010, and before that as the province's vice governor between 2005 and 2009. He was previously the rector of Andalas University.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is a British-American structural biologist. He shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath for research on the structure and function of ribosomes.

Zheng Ji was a Chinese nutritionist and biochemist, sometimes regarded as the founder of modern nutrition science in China. He was reputed to be the world's oldest professor, having lived to the age of 110.

David Jonathan Edwards is a Welsh politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from 2010 to 2024. Initially elected as a Plaid Cymru MP. He sat as an Independent MP after the party's disciplinary panel suspended him in 2020. His membership of Plaid was restored in July 2022, and the whip was returned...

Edward Lachman is an American cinematographer and director, known primarily for his work in independent films.

Ilmar Raag is an Estonian media executive, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his socio-critical film The Class. He was CEO of Estonian Television from 2002 to 2005. He is a well known columnist in many prestigious Estonian newspapers (Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht). He has written many scripts and directed critically acclaimed films, notably August 1991 and The Class.