65 Notable alumni of Spelman College

Maxine D. Hayes is an American public health expert who was the State Health Officer for Washington state from 1998 until 2013. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006 and awarded the American Public Health Association Martha May Eliot Award.

Evelyn LaRue Pittman was an American composer, choral director and music educator.

Joycelyn Harrison is an African-American engineer who is Associate Dean of the College of Aeronautics and Engineering at Kent State University. In 2006 she was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. Her research considers the development of novel piezoelectric materials.

Effie O'Neal Ellis was an American pediatrician, child medical care consultant, and an activist for infant health and maternal education. Ellis was the first African American woman to hold an executive position in the American Medical Association. In 1989, Ellis was inducted to the Chicago Women's Hall of Fame for her efforts in improving the lives of the black community...

Clara Ann Howard was an American educator and, from 1890 to 1895, a Baptist missionary in Africa.

Adrienne S. O'Neal is the former United States Ambassador to Cape Verde. On June 24, 2011, O'Neal was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Ambassador and was then confirmed by the United States Senate on October 18, 2011. O'Neal presented her credentials to Cape Verde's president, Jorge Carlos Fonseca, on December 9, 2011.

Emma Beard Delaney was a Baptist missionary and teacher, one of the earliest African-American missionaries from USA who worked in Africa, specifically Liberia and the British Central Africa Protectorate (now Malawi).

Jewell R. Mazique was an activist who helped found the Capital Transit campaign with United Federal Workers to integrate Washington D.C.'s bus operators. Mazique wrote extensively for The Washington Afro-American newspaper on topics such as the United Nations position on African Nations, and how black children were being educated in DC schools. She served on the National Council for the...

Nora Antonia Gordon was an African American missionary and teacher.

Angelou Ezeilo is an American social entrepreneur and environmental activist. She is the founder of Greening Youth Foundation, a nonprofit that connects underrepresented youth to the outdoors and conservation careers. She received an Ashoka Fellowship in 2016.

La'Shanda R. Holmes is a lieutenant commander in the United States Coast Guard and the first African-American female helicopter pilot for the Coast Guard. She grew up in the foster care system and put herself through Spelman College. She was an Aircraft Commander at Air Station Los Angeles, Air Station Atlantic City, and Air Station Miami. She has amassed over...

Harriet Mitchell Murphy was the first African-American woman appointed to a regular judgeship in Texas.

Blanche Mae Armwood was an American educator, women's suffrage advocate, activist, and the first African-American woman in the state of Florida to graduate from an accredited law school. Armwood was also the first Executive Secretary of the Tampa Urban League and a founder of five Household Industrial Arts Schools for African-American women in five different states. Armwood High School in...

Monica Farmer Cox is a professor of engineering education at Ohio State University. Cox was the first African-American woman to earn tenure in engineering at Purdue University. She won the 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden is an interdisciplinary research-based conceptual artist, filmmaker and curator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons is an American activist and retired academic. She is senior lecturer emerita at the University of Florida since her retirement in 2019. Her research has explored Islamic feminism and the impact of Sharia law on Muslim women. She is a civil rights activist who served as a member of both the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and...

Aurelia Erskine Brazeal is a retired American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia, United States Ambassador to Kenya and United States Ambassador to Ethiopia.

Heather McTeer Toney is an American politician, environmentalist, attorney, and civil servant. In 2014, Toney was appointed as a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for the Southeast region by President Barack Obama. Prior to this, Toney served as the first woman and African American to serve as mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, a position she held from 2004 to...

Marcia Simone "Cia" Price is an American politician serving as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for the 85th district, which includes parts of the cities of Hampton and Newport News.

Selena Sloan Butler was the founder and first president of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers Association (NCCPT). President Herbert Hoover appointed her to the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection in 1929. During World War II, she organized the Red Cross' first black women's chapter of "Gray Ladies." When Congress merged the NCCPT with the...

Talitha Washington is an American mathematician and academic who specializes in applied mathematics and STEM education policy. She was recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2018 Honoree. Washington became the 26th president of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 2023.

Monica Montgomery Steppe is an American politician serving as a member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors since 2023, representing District 4. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as a member of the San Diego City Council from 2018 to 2023, representing District 4, including as president pro tempore of the city council from 2021...

Linda Goode Bryant is an African-American documentary filmmaker and activist. She founded the gallery Just Above Midtown (JAM), which was the focus of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 2022, organized by curator Thomas Lax.

Charlie Spike Trotman, also known as C. Spike Trotman, is an American cartoonist and publisher known for creating the long-running web comic Templar, Arizona, and for publishing the Smut Peddler anthologies of what she describes as "lady centric porn". She is the founder and owner of Iron Circus Comics, an indie comics publisher which Forbes described as "a powerhouse of...

Bernette Joshua Johnson is an American lawyer from New Orleans, who served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 2013 to 2020.

Namina Forna is a Sierra Leonean American author of young adult fiction and a screenwriter. Her debut novel The Gilded Ones was published in February 2021 and quickly entered the New York Times and Indie Bestseller lists.

Malikha Mallette is an American former radio personality, voice-over artist and actress. She is most known for her former work at New York radio station Power 105, where she previously hosted afternoon drive.

Evelynn Maxine Hammonds is an American feminist and scholar. She is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College. The intersections of race, gender, science and medicine are prominent research topics across her published works. Hammonds received degrees in engineering and physics....

Loretta Yvonne Copeland Biggs is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Paula S. Hicks-Hudson is an American politician who has served as a member of the Ohio Senate from the 11th district since 2022. She is the former Mayor of Toledo, Ohio.

Ada Elene Brown is a Native American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She was appointed in 2019 by President Donald Trump. She is a former trial judge of the Dallas County courts and a former Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas....

Tia Fuller is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator, and a member of the all-female band touring with Beyoncé. Fuller is currently a faculty member in the ensembles department at Berklee College of Music. Fuller was a Featured Jazz Musician in Pixar's animated film Soul. For the film Fuller plays an alto saxophone with a Vandoren mouthpiece for the character...

Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from its earliest days in 1960 until her death in October 1967. She served the organization as an activist in the field and as an administrator in the Atlanta central office. She eventually succeeded James Forman as SNCC's executive secretary and was the only woman ever to serve in...

Laurie A. Cumbo is an American politician and Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. A Democrat, she served in the New York City Council for the 35th district from 2014 to 2021, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights, portions of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Navy Yard,...

Marcelite Cecile Jordan Harris was an American who became the first African-American female general officer of the United States Air Force.

Mattiwilda Dobbs was an American coloratura soprano and was one of the first black singers to enjoy a major international career in opera. She was the first black singer to perform at La Scala in Italy, the first black woman to receive a long-term performance contract and to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the...

Dovey Mae Johnson Roundtree was an African-American civil rights activist, ordained minister, and attorney. Her 1955 victory before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the first bus desegregation case to be brought before the ICC resulted in the only explicit repudiation of the "separate but equal" doctrine in the field of interstate bus transportation by a court or federal administrative body....

Kiran Arjandas Ahuja is an American attorney and activist who served as the director of the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). She served as the chief of staff to the OPM director from 2015 to 2017. She assumed that position after serving for six years as the director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific...

Tanya Marie Walton Pratt is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Ruha Benjamin is a sociologist and professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. She works on the relationship between innovation and equity, particularly the intersection of race, justice, and technology. Benjamin authored People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier (2013), Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019), and Viral...

Andrea Nicole Livingstone, known as Nic Stone, is an American author of young adult fiction and middle grade fiction, best known for her debut novel Dear Martin and her middle grade debut, Clean Getaway. Her novels have been translated into six languages.

Bernice Johnson Reagon was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble...

Kiron Kanina Skinner is an American political scientist. She was Director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State in the first Trump administration. Skinner is presently the Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, where she teaches graduate courses in national security and public leadership. Prior to that, she...

Denise Nicole White, known professionally as AverySunshine, is an American singer, songwriter and pianist.

Lisa DeNell Cook is an American economist who was sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2022. She is the first black woman to sit on the board. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve Board, she was elected in January 2022 to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago....

Tayari Jones is an American author and academic known for An American Marriage, which was a 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection and won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is currently a member of the English faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences...

Adrienne Eadie Adams is an American politician from the state of New York. A Democrat, Adams represented the 28th district in the New York City Council from 2017 to 2025 and served as speaker of the City Council from 2022 until 2025. She is the first woman to represent District 28 on the City Council and is the first Black...

Willie Christine King Farris was an American teacher and civil rights activist. King was the sister of Martin Luther King Jr. and Alfred Daniel Williams. She taught at Spelman College and was the author of several books and was a public speaker on various topics, including the King family, multicultural education, and teaching.

Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for civil rights and children's rights. She is the founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund. She influenced leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Hillary Clinton.

Shaun Robinson is an American television host, author, producer, philanthropist, television personality and actress. She is perhaps best known for hosting Access Hollywood (1999–2015) and 90 Day Fiancé and its spin-offs (2016–present). Her accolades include an Emmy Award for her live coverage of A Grand Night in Harlem for the Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Cassi Davis-Patton is an American actress best known for her role as Ella Payne on Tyler Perry's House of Payne and its spin-off series The Paynes. She is also known as Aunt Bam in the Madea franchise since 2010. She has starred in several other productions under the direction of Tyler Perry.

Erica Tazel is an American theatre and television actress best known for the role of US Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks in the FX television series Justified (2010–2015).

Adrienne-Joi Johnson, also known as A. J. Johnson, is an American actress, choreographer, fitness trainer, and life coach. Acting since 1987, Johnson has made many guest appearances on sitcoms, television dramas and music videos; she also has numerous supporting roles in films, including House Party and Baby Boy.

Keshia Knight Pulliam is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress. She landed her breakthrough role as Rudy Huxtable, on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992), and became the youngest person to be nominated for an Emmy Award, when she earned a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Comedy Series at the 38th Primetime...

LaTanya Richardson Jackson is an American actress. She began her career appearing in off-Broadway productions, before playing supporting roles on television and film. Her performances are credited to her birth name, LaTanya Richardson, from 1989 to 2013.

Tatiana Gabrielle Hobson, known professionally as Tati Gabrielle, is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Gaia on The CW science fiction television series The 100, Prudence on the Netflix original series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Marienne Bellamy on the Netflix series You. She also provided the voice of Willow Park on the Disney Channel animated...

Bernice Albertine King is an American lawyer, minister, and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Just one week after her fifth birthday, her father was assassinated. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17...

Esther Elizabeth Rolle was an American actress. She is best known for her role as Florida Evans, on the CBS television sitcom Maude, for two seasons (1972–1974), and its spin-off series Good Times, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1976. In 1979, Rolle became the first...

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple. Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections...

Rolonda Watts is an American actress, producer, and television and radio talk show host. She is best known for hosting the eponymous Rolonda, an internationally syndicated talk show which aired from 1994 to 1997. Watts was the on-camera announcer for Judge Joe Brown, which ended its run in 2013. She is currently the announcer for Sherri.

Georgia Rooks Dwelle was an African-American physician in Atlanta, Georgia who specialized in obstetrics and pediatrics. When Dwelle was licensed as a physician in 1904, she was one of only three African American women physicians in the state of Georgia. Dwelle began to practice medicine at a time when Jim Crow laws and social customs in Georgia required racial segregation...

Audrey Forbes Manley is an American pediatrician and public health administrator. Manley was the first African-American woman appointed as chief resident at Cook County Children's Hospital in Chicago (1962), as well as the first to achieve the rank of Assistant Surgeon General (Rear Admiral) in 1988. She later served as the eighth president of Spelman College.

Stacey Yvonne Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018. Her efforts have been widely credited with boosting...

Alberta Christine Williams King was an American civil rights organizer best known as the wife of Martin Luther King Sr.; and as the mother of Martin Luther King Jr., and also as the grandmother of Martin Luther King III. She was the choir director of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. She was shot and killed in the church by 23-year-old Marcus...