List of Bennington College people

This list of notable people associated with Bennington College includes matriculating students, alumni, attendees, faculty, trustees, and honorary degree recipients of Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Notable alumni

Architecture
Name Class Year Notability Degree Reference
Kevin Alter 1985 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 B.A.
David Choi 1996 principal, CHOIDESIGN + Partners; winner of Coptic Church International Design Contest, Edge as Center Competition B.A.
John Joseph Diebboll 1978 In 1982 he earned a master’s degree in architecture from Princeton, where he studied with Mr. Graves.

At Conklin & Rossant as a designer, he worked on the master plan for Tanzania’s new capital, Dodoma; on the Ramaz School in Manhattan; and on the restoration of Brooklyn Borough Hall. In 2007 he founded Diebboll Architects.

 B.A.

[1]

Judith Munk artist and designer associated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography B.A.

Art administration
Name Class Year Notability Degree Reference
Deborah Borda 1971 president and CEO, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; former president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic B.A.
Dan Cameron 1979 former director, visual arts, Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans), Chief Curator of the Orange County Museum of Art B.A.
Kathy Halbreich 1971 associate director, The Museum of Modern Art (New York) B.A.
Maren Hassinger 1969 director, the Rinehart School of Graduate Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art B.A.
Lindsay Howard art curator in New York B.A.
Harvey Lichtenstein 1953 chair, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Local Development Corporation; former executive director and president emeritus of the Board of Trustees, Brooklyn Academy of Music B.A.
Matthew Marks 1985 founder and owner, Matthew Marks Gallery B.A.
Sharon Ott 1972 former artistic director, Seattle Repertory Theater; Tony and Obie Awards; faculty, Savannah College of Art & Design; executive board member, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society B.A.
Virlana Tkacz 1974 founding director of Yara Arts Group B.A.
Anne Waldman 1966 director and cofounder, Jack Kerouac School, The Naropa Institute; the Dylan Thomas Memorial Prize and NEA fellowships B.A.

Aviation
Name Class Year Notability Degree Reference
Betty Haas Pfister aviator B.A.

Business
Name Class Year Notability Degree Reference
Asad Ayaz 2000 president of marketing at The Walt Disney Studios B.A. [2]
Deborah Borda 1971 president and CEO, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; former president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic B.A.
Bruce Berman 1974 chairman and CEO, Village Roadshow Pictures; executive producer, The Matrix, Ocean's Eleven, Analyze This, Mystic River, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory B.A.
Judith Jones 1945 vice president and senior editor, Knopf; author of The Tenth Muse: My Life with Food and The Pleasures of Cooking for One B.A.

Dance/choreography
Name Class Year Notability Degree Reference
Liz Lerman 1969 choreographer, founder/director, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; 2002 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner B.A.
Lisa Nelson 1971 choreographer; former editor, Contact Quarterly; director of Videoda B.A.
Sara Rudner 1999 director of dance, Sarah Lawrence College; former principal dancer, Twyla Tharp Dance; recipient of Bessie Award and Guggenheim grant B.A.

Education
Name Class Year Notability Degree Reference
Judith Butler 1978 professor and chair of comparative literature and rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley; author, Gender Trouble B.A.
Sheila Miyoshi Jager 1984 professor of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College B.A. [3]
Ellen McCulloch-Lovell 1969 president, Marlboro College; former deputy assistant to President Clinton B.A.
Sally Liberman Smith 1950 founder/director, Lab School, Washington, DC B.A.

Film/theater/television
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
Betty Aberlin 1963 actress and poet, Mister Rogers′ Neighborhood B.A.
Alan Arkin 1955 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 B.A.
Chris Bowen 1988 senior performing director, Blue Man Group; Obie and Drama Desk Awards B.A.
John Boyd 2003 actor, Bones B.A. [4]
Carol Channing 1942 Broadway and film actress; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hello, Dolly!; Golden Globe Award, Academy Award nomination B.A. [5]
Spencer Cox HIV/AIDS activist B.A.
Tim Daly 1979 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 B.A.
Peter Dinklage 1991 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 B.A.
Mitchell Kriegman 1974 Emmy award winning director and writer, The Book of Pooh, Bear in the Big Blue House, Clarissa Explains It All B.A.
Mitch Markowitz 1975 screenwriter, Good Morning Vietnam, Crazy People; TV credits include M*A*S*H, Too Close for Comfort, Monk B.A.
Alley Mills 1973 The Wonder Years, The Bold and the Beautiful (Emmy and Golden Globe Award) B.A.
Barry Primus 1960 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 B.A.
Anne Ramsey 1951 actress, The Goonies, Throw Momma from the Train; Saturn Award B.A.
Melissa Rosenberg 1986 writer/producer; TV credits include The Agency, Boston Public, Dexter; film credits include Step Up, Twilight, New Moon B.A.
Suzanne Shepherd 1956 actress; film credits include Working Girl, Goodfellas; TV credits include Law & Order, The Sopranos B.A.
Rider Strong 2009 screenwriter, director, producer: Irish Twins; actor, Boy Meets World M.F.A.
Holland Taylor 1964 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 B.A.
Justin Theroux 1993 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, The Leftovers, John Adams B.A.
Virlana Tkacz 1974 theater director B.A.
Jill Wisoff 1977 film composer/actor; film credits include Welcome to the Dollhouse, Smart House, Creating Karma B.A.

Government/public service
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
Princess Yasmin Aga Khan 1973 vice chairman of Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Association; president of Alzheimer's Disease International B.A.

Journalism/broadcasting
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
James Geary 1985 former deputy editor of TIME magazine, Europe, Middle East, and Africa B.A.
Roger Kimball 1975 art critic and conservative social commentator; editor and publisher of New Criterion B.A.
Ted Mooney 1973 senior editor, Art in America magazine B.A.
Wendy Perron 1969 editor-in-chief, Dance Magazine B.A.
Alec Wilkinson 1974 staff writer, The New Yorker; author of eight nonfiction books; Robert F. Kennedy Book Award B.A.

Music
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
Chris Barron 1990 lead singer, Spin Doctors B.A.
Alex Bleeker 2008 member of the band Real Estate and Alex Bleeker and the Freaks B.A.
Mountain Man indie folk singing trio
Lisa Sokolov 1976 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 B.A.
Michael Starobin 1979 orchestrator on Broadway for Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Falsettos, Guys and Dolls, King Lear, Visiting Mr. Green, Next to Normal B.A.
Will Stratton 2009 singer/songwriter B.A.
Elizabeth Swados 1973 composer, writer, director; three-time Obie winner B.A.
James Tenney 1958 experimental composer; Roy E. Disney Family Chair in Musical Composition, CalArts B.A.
Joan Tower 1961 composer; Asher Edelman Professor of Music, Bard College; Grammy Award recipient B.A.
Susannah Waters 1986 soprano, profiled in Opera News; NYC Opera debut 1997 in Handel's Xerxes B.A.
Anthony Wilson 1990 composer/arranger, guitarist; toured with Diana Krall B.A.

Science/medicine
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
Barrie Cassileth 1959 Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center B.A.
Alexander McAdam 1981 Director, Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory, Boston Children's Hospital

Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

 B.A.
Jennifer Mieres 1982 director, nuclear cardiology; associate professor, New York University School of Medicine B.A.

Sports
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
Martha Rockwell 1966 Olympic cross-country skier B.A.

Visual arts
Name Class Year Notability Degree Citation
Ralph Alswang 1987 official White House photographer, Clinton administration B.A.
Susan Crile 1965 painter; faculty, Hunter College B.A.
Helen Frankenthaler 1949 painter; pioneer in abstract expressionism B.A.
Anna Gaskell 1992 photographer; named as one of three Best and Brightest art photographers in America by Esquire magazine B.A.
Maren Hassinger 1969 Installation, sculpture, performance artist also working in video. Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. B.A.
Sally Mann 1973 photographer; named one of "America's best photographers" by TIME magazine, author, Deep South, Proud Flesh B.A.
Robert Perkins Poet and artist B.A.
Anne Poor painter and war correspondent in World War II B.A.
Tom Sachs 1989 installation artist; work appeared in New York Times Magazine, Elle Décor magazine, The New York Post, GQ B.A.
Marian Zazeela 1960 light-artist, designer, painter and musician B.A.
Jane Zweibel 1981 painter, mixed media art, sculpture B.A. [6]

Writing
Mohammed Naseehu Ali 1995 author; book, The Prophet of Zongo Street B.A.
Claire Blatchford 1966 author and deafness advocate; book, Turning: Words Heard from Within B.A.
Carolyn Cassady 1944 author; book, Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg B.A.
Kiran Desai 1993 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) B.A.
Gretel Ehrlich 1967 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 B.A.
Jill Eisenstadt 1985 novelist; books, From Rockaway and Kiss Out B.A.
Bret Easton Ellis 1986 author; books, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, Lunar Park, The Informers B.A.
Lynn Emanuel 1972 poet; books, Hotel Fiesta, The Dig, Then, Suddenly; National Poetry Series Award, Pushcart Prize, NEA, professor at University of Pittsburgh B.A.
Elizabeth Frank 1967 author; Pulitzer Prize for Louise Bogan: A Portrait; Cheat and Charmer: A Novel, Joseph E. Harry Chair in Modern Languages and Literature, Bard College B.A.
M. B. Goffstein 1962 author-illustrator; books, Natural History, An Artist, Fish for Supper, Artists' Helpers Enjoy the Evenings, Biography of Miss Go Chi: Novelettos & Poems B.A.
Tod Goldberg 2009 author; books, Gangsterland, Living Dead Girl, Other Resort Cities, Burn Notice series B.A.
Sandra Hochman 1957 poet and novelist, books, Manhattan Pastures, Jogging: A Love Story, Playing Tahoe; 1963 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award B.A.
Barbara Howes 1937 poet; wife of William Jay Smith B.A.
Jonathan Lethem 1986 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 B.A.
Cynthia Macdonald 1950 poet; books, Amputations, (W)holes, I Can't Remember B.A.
Kathleen Norris 1969 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 B.A.
Michael Pollan 1976 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 B.A.
Mary Ruefle 1974 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 B.A.
Eva Salzman 1982 poet; books, The English Earthquake, Bargain with the Watchman B.A.
Reginald Shepherd 1988 poet, books, Some Are Drowning, Wrong, Otherhood B.A.
Donna Tartt 1986 author; 2014 Pulitzer Prize Winner for The Goldfinch; books, The Secret History, The Little Friend B.A.
Anne Waldman 1966 poet, books, Marriage: A Sentence, In the Room of Never Grieve, professor at Naropa University B.A.
Thisuri Wanniarachchi 2016 author; books, Colombo Streets, The Terrorist's Daughter B.A.
Susan Wheeler 1977 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 B.A.

Fictional characters
Fictional Work Date Fictional Person Degree Reference
V. 1963 Rachel Owlglass, a wealthy woman from Long Island's Five Towns graduated from Bennington B.A.
Cheers 1982 Diane Chambers, a bartender in Boston B.A.

Notable current faculty

Notable former faculty

References
  1. NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/arts/design/06diebboll.html#:~:text=After%20earning%20a%20bachelor%E2%80%99s%20degree%20in%201978%20from,and%20on%20the%20restoration%20of%20Brooklyn%20Borough%20Hall.
  2. https://www.bennington.edu/bennington-magazine/marketing-mastermind
  3. "Sheila Miyoshi Jager". Oberlin College. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-03-11. Retrieved 2015-02-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Bernstein, Jacob (February 22, 2013). "Surviving AIDS, but Not the Life That Followed". NYTimes.com. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  6. "Exploring Female Identity with Jane Zweibel". Create! Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
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