Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

List of Bennington College people

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This page lists notable alumni and faculty of Bennington College.

Contents

Architecture

  • David Choi ’96: principal, CHOIDESIGN + Partners; winner of Coptic Church International Design Contest, Edge as Center Competition
  • Arjun Desai ’88: founder and partner, Desai/Chia Architecture (rated among the top 100 design firms by House Beautiful); winner of 2004 AIA/NY Design Award and 2005 American Architecture Award for their Cooper Square project
  • Kevin Alter ’85: associate dean for graduate programs, Sid W. Richardson Centennial Professor of Architecture; director of the Summer Academy in Architecture; and associate director of the Center for American Architecture and Design at The University of Texas at Austin
  • John Diebboll ’78: principal, Michael Graves & Associates, NYC; author of The Art of the Piano
  • Judith DiMaio ’72: dean, New York Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Design Architecture; winner of Rome Prize in architecture
  • Patricia Johanson '62: designer of Fair Park Lagoon, Dallas; pioneer in the incorporation of art and ecology with infrastructure
  • Judith Munk, artist and designer associated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography

    • Art administration

  • Lindsey Howard
  • Matthew Marks ’85: founder and owner, Matthew Marks Gallery
  • Brooke Davis Anderson '84: deputy director of Curatorial Programming, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; author of two books on the life and work of artist Martín Ramírez, and Darger: The Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum
  • Dan Cameron ’79: former director, visual arts, Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans), Chief Curator of the Orange County Museum of Art
  • George King ’77: director, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
  • James Levin ’76: founder, Cleveland Public Theatre
  • Virlana Tkacz '74; founding director of Yara Arts Group
  • Peter Barnet '73: curator, Medieval Art and The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Sharon Ott ’72: former artistic director, Seattle Repertory Theater; Tony and Obie Awards; faculty, Savannah College of Art & Design; executive board member, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
  • Kathy Halbreich ’71: associate director, The Museum of Modern Art (New York)
  • Deborah Borda ’71: president and CEO, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; former president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic
  • Maren Hassinger ’69: director, the Rinehart School of Graduate Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art
  • Anne Waldman ’66: director and cofounder, Jack Kerouac School, The Naropa Institute; the Dylan Thomas Memorial Prize and NEA fellowships
  • Harvey Lichtenstein ’53: chair, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Local Development Corporation; former executive director and president emeritus of the Board of Trustees, Brooklyn Academy of Music

    • Business

  • Andrea Fiuczynski ’85: Executive Vice President, Chairman, Americas at Sotheby's
  • Jim Weinstock ’78: senior vice president for investments at Beringer Weinstock Group
  • Glenn Horowitz ’77: rare book dealer/owner, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc.
  • Brad Jacobs ’77: former chairman and CEO, United Rentals, Inc.
  • John Sheldon ’77: managing director, Lazard
  • Nicholas Stephens ’77: partner, Edgewood Management Company; registered investment adviser
  • Andrew Langerman ’74: former managing director at Deutsche Bank Securities; former managing director at Fortis Bank; on the forefront of innovation in CDOs, derivatives and structured finance
  • Bruce Berman ’74: chairman and CEO, Village Roadshow Pictures; executive producer, The Matrix, Ocean's Eleven, Analyze This, Mystic River, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Ruth Elias Rogers ’70: chef/owner, River Café, London; co-author, Italian Country Cookbook
  • Kathryn Talalay ’71: project editor, W.W. Norton & Co.; author of Composition in Black and White: The Life of Philippa Schuyler
  • Ellen Beskind Safir ’66: founder/CEO, New Century Advisers
  • Pamela deWindt Burke ’64: first vice president, McDonald & Co. Securities
  • Priscilla Alexander ’58: founder and president, ProTravel International
  • Corinne Silverman Kyle ’50: research director, Gallup International Institute
  • Judith Jones ’45: vice president and senior editor, Knopf; author of The Tenth Muse: My Life with Food, and The Pleasures of Cooking for One

    • Dance/choreography

  • Sara Rudner MFA ’99: director of dance, Sarah Lawrence College; former principal dancer, Twyla Tharp Dance; recipient of Bessie Award and Guggenheim grant
  • Myrna Packer ’74: award-winning choreographer/dancer, co-artistic director of Bridgman/Packer Dance; recipient of grants and fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the John Simon Memorial Guggenheim Foundation
  • Lisa Nelson ’71: choreographer; former editor, Contact Quarterly; director of Videoda
  • Penny Campbell ’70: lecturer of dance, Middlebury College
  • Liz Lerman ’69: choreographer, founder/director, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; 2002 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner
  • Julie Arenal Primus ’60: choreographer for original and revival Broadway productions of Hair
  • Carla Maxwell ’67: artistic director, José Limón Dance Company; Bessie Award winner
  • Aileen Passloff ’53: chair, dance department, Bard College

    • Education

  • Emanuelle A. Kihm ’93: founder, The Open Classroom Collaborative, NYC arts education organization
  • Jeanne M. Poduska ’85: deputy director and principal research scientist, American Institutes for Research, Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Research in School; associate faculty, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Douglas Biow ’79: professor of Italian and comparative literature, University of Austin; 2006 Guggenheim fellow
  • Judith Butler ’78: professor and chair of comparative literature and rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley; author, Gender Trouble
  • Susan Forbes-Luxton '72: co-founder and associate director of Educational Solution Group
  • Ellen McCulloch-Lovell ’69: president, Marlboro College; former deputy assistant to President Clinton
  • Ellen Taussig ’66: cofounder, The Northwest School, Seattle, WA; head of school since 1992
  • Uliana Fischbein Gabara ’61: dean of international education, University of Richmond (VA)
  • Joan Hutton Landis ’51: former chair of liberal arts, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia; author of That Blue Repair
  • Sally Liberman Smith ’50: founder/director, Lab School, Washington, DC

    • Film/theater/television

  • Rider Strong: '09: Bennington MFA alum- screenwriter, director, producer: Irish Twins; actor, Boy Meets World
  • John Boyd: '03: actor, Bones
  • Justin Theroux ’93: actor; film credits include Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Duplex, Mulholland Drive, American Psycho, Tropic of Thunder: Rain of Madness; TV credits include Alias, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, John Adams
  • Spencer Cox (did not graduate): HIV/AIDS activist
  • Peter Dinklage ’91: actor; film credits include Living in Oblivion, The Station Agent, Elf, Death at a Funeral, Saint John of Las Vegas, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, X-Men: Days of Future Past; TV credits include Nip/Tuck, 30 Rock, Game of Thrones
  • Chris Bowen ’88: senior performing director, Blue Man Group; Obie and Drama Desk Awards
  • Melissa Rosenberg ’86: writer/producer; TV credits include The Agency, Boston Public, Dexter; film credits include Step Up, Twilight, New Moon
  • Liz Glotzer ’83: president of production, Castle Rock Pictures; executive producer, The Shawshank Redemption, The Majestic, The Mist
  • Tim Daly ’79: actor,Diner, Made in Heaven; TV credits include Witness to the Execution, Wings, The Fugitive, The Sopranos, Private Practice, "Madam Secretary"; Theatre World and Dramalogue awards
  • Mitch Markowitz ’75: screenwriter, Good Morning Vietnam, Crazy People; TV credits include M*A*S*H, Too Close for Comfort, Monk
  • Virlana Tkacz '74: theater director
  • Mitchell Kriegman '74: Emmy award winning director and writer, The Book of Pooh, Bear in the Big Blue House, Clarissa Explains It All
  • Alley Mills ’73: actress, The Wonder Years, The Bold and the Beautiful (Emmy and Golden Globe Award)
  • Holland Taylor ’64: actress; film credits include To Die For, The Truman Show, One Fine Day; TV credits include Bosom Buddies, The Practice (Emmy Award), Two and a Half Men
  • Barry Primus '60: actor/director/writer, Cagney & Lacey, The X-Files, LA Law; film credits include The Rose, American Hustle, Mistress, Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death
  • Suzanne Shepherd ’56: actress; film credits include Working Girl, Goodfellas; TV credits include Law & Order, The Sopranos
  • Alan Arkin ’55: actor, director, composer, author; film credits include Catch-22, The Russians Are Coming, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grosse Pointe Blank, The In-Laws, Little Miss Sunshine (Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Get Smart
  • Carol Channing ’42: Broadway and film actress; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hello, Dolly!; Golden Globe Award, Academy Award nomination

    • Government/public service

  • Aliza Akhtar ’03: assistant to the general counsel, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York
  • Aaron Scholer ’97, MLAS ’98: Director of National Security Policy for progressive political strategy and legislative advocacy group; Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University, Department of Government
  • Eric Ramirez-Ferrero ’85: former University of Michigan Population Fellow; chief of party, EngenderHealth, Tanzania
  • Princess Yasmin Aga Khan ’73: vice chairman of Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Association; president of Alzheimer's Disease International
  • Gay Johnson McDougall ’69: first UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues; executive director of International Human Rights Law Group; 1999 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner
  • Jerri Perloff ’65: program director, National Institutes of Health
  • Elinor Bacon ’63: former CEO, National Capital Revitalization Corporation; former deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; citizen member of the District of Columbia Office of Planning; president of E.R. Bacon Development
  • Elizabeth Raspolic ’60: former Ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome & Principe, and later Chargé d'Affaires, ad interim, to Guinea
  • Kay Crawford Murray ’56: pioneer for the advancement of women attorneys; former chair of the Committee on Women in the Law of the New York State Bar Association; former general counsel to the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice; inaugural recipient of the New York State Bar Association's Kay Crawford Murray Award
  • Elizabeth Pfister ’43: awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her work in the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the first women in history to fly America's military aircraft, during World War II; founder of the Ninety-Nines: The International Organization of Women Pilots; inductee in the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame

    • Journalism/broadcasting

  • James Geary ’85: former deputy editor of TIME magazine, Europe, Middle East, and Africa
  • Raphael Rubinstein ’79: senior editor, Art in America magazine
  • Roger Kimball '75: art critic and conservative social commentator; editor and publisher of New Criterion
  • Thomas Matthews ’75: executive editor, Wine Spectator
  • Carl Navarre ’74: former publisher and editor-in-chief, Atlantic Monthly Press; CEO, MyPublisher, Inc.
  • Alec Wilkinson ’74: staff writer, The New Yorker; author of eight nonfiction books; Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
  • Ted Mooney ’73: senior editor, Art in America magazine
  • Francesca Lyman ’72: environmental writer for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Sierra magazine; “Your Environment" column for MSNBC
  • Wendy Perron ’69: editor-in-chief, Dance Magazine
  • Elizabeth Richter Zimmer ’66: former dance editor, The Village Voice
  • Joyce Sunila '65: film commentator, lifestyle columnist for The Los Angeles Times
  • Gail Hirschhorn Evans ’63: former executive vice president, CNN Newsgroup; author of Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman
  • Pam Abel Hill ’60: broadcast journalist; two-time Emmy Award winner

    • Music

  • Will Stratton '10: singer/songwriter
  • Amelia Meath '09: member of the band Sylvan Esso and Mountain Man
  • Mountain Man (group): indie folk singing trio
  • Alex Bleeker '08: member of the band Real Estate and Alex Bleeker and the Freaks
  • Chris Barron ’90: lead singer, Spin Doctors
  • Anthony Wilson ’90: composer/arranger, guitarist; toured with Diana Krall
  • Christopher P. Lombardi ’90: co-founder, Matador Records
  • Ahrin Mishan ’86: composer, TV credits include Ed, The Whoopi Goldberg Show; film credits include End of Magic, Birds of America
  • Susannah Waters ’86: soprano, profiled in Opera News; NYC Opera debut 1997 in Handel's Xerxes
  • Michael Starobin ’79: orchestrator on Broadway for Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Falsettos, Guys and Dolls, King Lear, Visiting Mr. Green, Next to Normal
  • Lisa Sokolov ’76: jazz vocalist, improviser and composer; originator, Embodied VoiceWork; director, The Institute for Embodied VoiceWork in New York; associate professor, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
  • Elizabeth Swados ’73: composer, writer, director; three-time Obie winner
  • Joan Tower ’61: composer; Asher Edelman Professor of Music, Bard College; Grammy Award recipient
  • James Tenney ’58: experimental composer; Roy E. Disney Family Chair in Musical Composition, CalArts

    • Science/medicine

  • Kristina Stinson ’92: population ecologist/staff scientist, Harvard Forest, Harvard University
  • Michael Coady ’89: assistant professor, department of surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
  • Jennifer Mieres ’82: director, nuclear cardiology; associate professor, New York University School of Medicine
  • Andrew Vershon ’79: professor, molecular biology and biochemistry, Waksman Institute, Rutgers University
  • Stephen Pratt ’77: senior chemist, Argonne National Laboratory
  • Peter S. White ’71: professor of ecology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; director, North Carolina Botanical Garden
  • Patricia Cronin Adams ’64: former president, New England Pediatric Society
  • Judith Schneider Bond ’61: chair, biochemistry and molecular biology, Penn State University; former president, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  • Barrie Cassileth ’59: Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

    • Visual arts

  • Matt Connors: Painter
  • Anna Gaskell ’92: photographer; named as one of three Best and Brightest art photographers in America by Esquire magazine
  • Tom Sachs ’89: installation artist; work appeared in New York Times Magazine, Elle Décor magazine, The New York Post, GQ
  • Ralph Alswang ’87: official White House photographer, Clinton administration
  • Sally Mann ’73: photographer; named one of "America's best photographers" by TIME magazine, author, Deep South, Proud Flesh
  • Maren Hassinger '69: Installation, sculpture, performance artist also working in video. Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
  • Susan Crile ’65: painter; faculty, Hunter College
  • Marian Zazeela '60: light-artist, designer, painter and musician
  • Helen Frankenthaler ’49: painter; pioneer in abstract expressionism

    • Writing

  • Thisuri Wanniarachchi '16: author; books, Colombo Streets, The Terrorist's Daughter
  • Tod Goldberg '09: author; books, Gangsterland, Living Dead Girl, Other Resort Cities, Burn Notice series
  • Mohammed Naseehu Ali '95: author; book, The Prophet of Zongo Street
  • Kiran Desai ’93: author; books, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (New York Times Notable Book) and Inheritance of Loss (winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize for fiction)
  • Reginald Shepherd '88: poet, books, Some Are Drowning, Wrong, Otherhood
  • Jonathan Lethem ’86: author; books, You Don't Love Me Yet, The Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn (National Book Critics Circle Award), 2005 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner, Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, Chronic City, appointed Disney professor of creative writing at Pomona College
  • Donna Tartt ’86: author; 2014 Pulitzer Prize Winner for The Goldfinch; books, The Secret History, The Little Friend
  • Bret Easton Ellis ’86: author; books, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, Lunar Park, The Informers
  • Jill Eisenstadt '85, novelist; books, From Rockaway and Kiss Out
  • Eva Salzman '82, poet; books, The English Earthquake, Bargain with the Watchman
  • Susan Wheeler '77, poet; books, Smokes, Bag o' Diamonds, Meme; Norma Farber First Book Award and finalist for National Book Award; Director of Creative Writing at Princeton University
  • Michael Pollan ’76: author; books, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire (New York Times bestseller), Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, and A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder
  • Mary Ruefle '74: poet and essayist; books, Madness Rock and Honey (National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist), A Little White Shadow, Among the Musk Ox People; recipient of William Carlos Williams Award
  • Lynn Emanuel ’72: poet; books, Hotel Fiesta, The Dig, Then, Suddenly; National Poetry Series Award, Pushcart Prize, NEA, professor at University of Pittsburgh
  • Kathleen Norris ’69: author of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, The Cloister Walk, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (New York Times Notable Book), and Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life; Guggenheim fellowship
  • Gretel Ehrlich ’67: author; books, Arctic Heart: A Poem Cycle, Islands, The Universe, Home, This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland, The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold; Whiting Creative Writing award, Guggenheim fellowship
  • Elizabeth Frank ’67: author; Pulitzer Prize for Louise Bogan: A Portrait; Cheat and Charmer: A Novel, Joseph E. Harry Chair in Modern Languages and Literature, Bard College
  • Anne Waldman ’66: poet, books, Marriage: A Sentence, In the Room of Never Grieve, professor at Naropa University
  • Claire Blatchford '66: author and deafness advocate; book, Turning: Words Heard from Within
  • Sandra Hochman '57, poet and novelist, books, Manhattan Pastures, Jogging: A Love Story, Playing Tahoe; 1963 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award
  • Riva Magaril Poor ’56: author; award-winning book, 4 Days, 40 Hours: Reporting a Revolution in Work and Leisure (1970); more than 500 speeches and 200 guest appearances on TV and radio shows, including Today, CBS News, Merv Griffin and Phil Donahue
  • Cynthia Macdonald '50: poet; books, Amputations, (W)holes, I Can't Remember
  • Miriam Marx Allen ’49: author; book, Love, Groucho: Letters from Groucho Marx to His Daughter Miriam
  • Carolyn Cassady ’44: author; book, Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg
  • Barbara Howes '37: poet; wife of William Jay Smith

    • Notable current faculty

  • Benjamin Anastas
  • April Bernard
  • Sven Birkerts
  • Kitty Brazelton
  • Susan Cheever
  • Ronald L. Cohen
  • Bernard Cooper
  • Annabel Davis-Goff
  • Michael Dumanis
  • Mansour Farhang
  • Marguerite Feitlowitz
  • David Gates
  • Amy Gerstler
  • Milford Graves
  • Donald Hall
  • Amy Hempel
  • Major Jackson
  • Bret Anthony Johnston
  • Dinah Lenney
  • Timothy Liu
  • Phillip Lopate
  • Mary Lum
  • Mac Maharaj
  • Honor Moore
  • Wyatt Mason
  • Brian Morton
  • Ed Ochester
  • Laura Parnes
  • Ben Paul
  • Ann Pibal
  • Lynne Sharon Schwartz
  • Allen Shawn
  • Bruce Williamson
  • Mark Wunderlich
  • Paul Yoon

    • Notable former faculty

  • W. H. Auden, gave a series of lectures on Shakespeare in the spring of 1946; resided in the Leigh house faculty apartment
  • Steven Bach
  • Ben Belitt, poet and language professor
  • Eric Bentley
  • Henry Brant, composer
  • Kenneth Burke, critic
  • Louis Calabro, composer
  • Sir Anthony Caro, British sculptor
  • Tony Carruthers, theater designer
  • Nicholas Delbanco, novelist and director of the Bennington Writers' Workshop
  • Bill Dixon, musician
  • Peter Drucker, management guru and writer
  • Paul Feeley, American painter
  • Francis Fergusson, French scholar and translator
  • Vivian Fine, composer
  • Claude Fredericks, poet
  • Buckminster Fuller
  • John Gardner, novelist
  • Martha Graham, dancer
  • Lucy Grealy, poet and writer
  • Clement Greenberg, art critic and historian
  • Richard Haas, artist
  • Edward Hoagland, writer
  • Stanley Edgar Hyman, literary critic (whose wife Shirley Jackson used settings in and around Bennington College in her famous short story "The Lottery")
  • Lyman Kipp, sculptor
  • Stanley Kunitz, poet
  • Ronnie Landfield, painter, (guest instructor) 1968
  • Bernard Malamud, novelist
  • Harry Mathews, poet, novelist, essayist
  • Donald McKayle, dancer and choreographer
  • Roland Merullo, author
  • Howard Nemerov, poet
  • Kenneth Noland, painter
  • Jules Olitski, painter
  • Mary Oliver, poet
  • Camille Paglia
  • Wendy Perron, dancer/choreographer
  • John Plumb, painter
  • Mark Poirier, novelist and short story writer
  • Jackson Pollock, painter; his first retrospective was held at Bennington in 1952
  • Larry Poons, painter
  • Theodore Roethke
  • Joel Shapiro, New York sculptor
  • Barbara Herrnstein Smith, professor and author
  • David Smith, sculptor
  • Michael Todd, sculptor
  • Glen Van Brummelen, historian of mathematics, former president of Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, founding faculty member of Quest University
  • Isaac Witkin, sculptor
  • Robert Woodworth, botanist and pioneer of time-lapse photography

    • References

    List of Bennington College people Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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