ARLENE ALDA
Hunter College 1954, photographer and author of children's literature.
ROCKY AOKI
New York City College of Technology 1963, founder of Benihana restaurants.
KENNETH ARROW
City College 1940, Nobel prize in Economics 1972.
CARMEN ARROYO
Hostos Community College 1978, New York State Assembly member.
RUSSELL M. ARTZT
Queens College 1968, cofounder and vice chair, Computer Associates International with Charles B. Wang (Queens College 1967).
HERMAN BADILLO
City College 1951, former Bronx borough president and first Puerto Rican elected to Congress.
CARMEN VIDAL BALANZAT
City College M.F.A. 2006, Student Academy Award Winner 2006.
MOHAMAD BAZZI
CUNY B.A. 1997, professor NYU's Carter Journalism Institute, Arthur Ross Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs.
ABRAHAM BEAME
City College 1928, Comptroller and Mayor of the City of New York.
MARTHA DESAUSSURE BENTON
New York City College of Technology 1987, first black legal secretary in NYS Appellate Division, Second Department; spearheaded hiring of minority women throughout court system.
AMANDA BERNAL-CARLO
Graduate Center Ph.D. 1991; professor, founder Hostos Cultural and Medicinal Plant Garden; co-founder, Hostos Honors Program.
PHILIP ALFONSO BERRY
Borough of Manhattan Community College 1971, Queens College 1973, leader in creating workplace diversity, president Philip Berry Associates management consulting; former vice president at Colgate-Palmolive; vice chairperson CUNY Board of Trustees.
CHAKAIA BOOKER
City College 1993, sculptor; 2005 Guggenheim fellow.
BARBARA LEVY BOXER
Brooklyn College 1962, U.S. representative, 1982-1993, U.S. senator from California since 1994.
ADOLFO CARRIÓN Jr.
Hunter College 1990, White House director of urban affairs, former Bronx borough president.
SANJEEV CHATTERJEE
Brooklyn College 1989, documentary filmmaker with focus on the Indian Diaspora, director of Knight Center for International Media at University of Miami.
WELLINGTON Z. CHEN
City College, architect, member of CUNY Board of Trustees.
SHIRLEY ST. HILL CHISHOLM
Brooklyn College 1946, U.S. representative 1969-82; 1972 presidential candidate.
CARMEN BEAUCHAMP CIPARICK
Hunter College 1963, first Hispanic woman named to the New York Court of Appeals.
ADRIAN RELU COMAN
CUNY B.A., program manager, International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission of New York, executive director, ACCEPT Romania.
ESTHER CONWELL
Brooklyn College 1942, physicist; first woman to receive major award from Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
JULIE DASH
City College 1974, writer, producer, director, Daughters of the Dust, the first feature length film by a black woman in national commercial release.
DAISY COCCO DE FILIPPIS
Queens College 1975, Graduate Center Ph.D. 1984; president Naugatuck Valley Community College; former provost Hostos Community College/CUNY.
CHRISTINE DEVITA
Queens College 1977, president, The Wallace Foundation.
ALFRED DRAKE
Brooklyn College 1936, actor, singer; starred in original Broadway productions of Oklahoma!, Kiss Me, Kate, Kismet.
RICOT DUPUY
Brooklyn College 1981, founder Radio Soleil; activist in Brooklyn's Haitian community; advocate for democracy and justice in Haiti.
GERTRUDE ELION
Hunter College 1937, winner, Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1977.
DEADRIA FARMER-PAELLMANN
Brooklyn College 1988, slavery reparations activist; seeks compensation for descendants of enslaved people from companies that benefited from slavery in their past.
SANDRA ABRAMOWITZ FELDMAN
Brooklyn College 1960, civil rights activist; president United Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers
DICK FLACKS
Brooklyn College 1958, UC Santa Barbara professor, co-author Port Huron Statement (1962), the manifesto of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
MICHELE FORSTEN
City College 1976,co-founder, New York City Lesbian Cancer Support Consortium.
KAYE I. FOSTER-CHEEK
Baruch College 1989, corporate vice president, human resources, Johnson & Johnson.
FELIX FRANKFURTER
City College 1902, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
TONYA GONNELLA FRICHNER
CUNY Law Center 1986, organizer, First Annual American Indian Law Symposium; founder, American Indian Law Alliance.
CHARLOTTE FRIEND
Hunter College, microbiologist, discovered the Friend leukemia virus (FLV).
MILDRED GARCIA
NYC College of Technology 1971; president, California State University, Dominguez Hills.
IRA GERSHWIN
City College 1918, lyricist, Porgy and Bess.
FRED GOLDHABER
Brooklyn College 1968, gay activist, first teacher hired at NYC's Harvey Milk High School, the first all-gay U.S. high school.
MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN
City College 1963, former president of Baruch College and Adelphi University and Chancellor of The City University of New York.
ANDREW GOODMAN
Queens College, civil rights activist murdered during Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964.
WILLIAM HALLETT GREENE
City College 1884, the first black graduate of City College and first black member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
ELLY GROSS
LaGuardia Community College 1997, author and lecturer on the Holocaust.
ANDREW GROVE
City College 1960, founder of Intel.
ADJOA GZIFA
York College B.S. 1988, Queens College M.A. 1995, associate director, LaGuardia Community College Workforce Education Center.
WAYNE HALL
New York City College of Technology 1973, York College 1978, mayor of Hempstead, N.Y.
HERBERT HAUPTMAN
City College 1937, Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1985 with classmate Jerome Karle.
RITA HAUSER
Hunter College 1954, attorney involved with international conflict resolution, security and human rights.
OSCAR HIJUELOS
City College 1975, winner, Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
CAROL HOCHMAN
Queens College 1971, president and CEO, Danskin.
RED HOLZMAN
City College 1942, coach, New York Knicks.
MURIEL A. HOWARD
Richmond College (became College of Staten Island), NYC Community College (renamed New York City College of Technology), former president, Buffalo State College/SUNY; president, American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
FLORENCE HOWE
Hunter College 1950, a founder of women's studies, founder/publisher of the Feminist Press/CUNY.
BISI IDERABDULLAH
Brooklyn College 1974, founder of Imani House, which assists low income youth, immigrants and families in Brooklyn and Liberia.
SUSAN ISAACS
Queens College 1965, novelist, essayist, screenwriter.
LETITIA JAMES
Lehman College 1981, City Councilmember, Brooklyn.
PATRICIA JOHANSON
City College 1977, internationally acclaimed artist and architect; 1994 Townsend Harris medalist.
MARSHA E. JONES
Lehman College 1972, first African-American female director of Merrill Lynch's private client office.
STANLEY H. KAPLAN
City College 1939, founder of Kaplan Educational Services.
JEROME KARLE
City College 1937, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1985 with classmate Herbert Hauptman.
IRENE MORGAN KIRKALDY
Queens College M.A. 1990; refused to give up seat on a segregated interstate bus in 1944, leading to 1946 Supreme Court decision desegregating interstate buses.
ARTHUR KORNBERG
City College 1937, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006.
PAUL KOVI
New York City College of Technology 1953, co-owner, The Four Seasons Restaurant.
MAX KUPFERBERG
Queens College 1942, Manhattan Project physicist; chairman of electrical company Kepco.
MYRNA LAKE
York College 1995, music educator; jazz vocalist.
GERTRUDE LANDAU
Hunter College 1931, founder of world's first senior citizens' center in Bronx, 1943.
LEON M. LEDERMAN
City College 1943, Nobel Prize in Physics 1988; National Medal of Science 1965; Wolf Prize for Physics 1982.
GUILLERMO LINARES
City College 1975, first Dominican-American City Council member and former commissioner of Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
WILLIAM E. MACAULAY
City College 1966, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Reserve Corporation.
BERNARD MALAMUD
City College 1936, Pulitzer Prize winning author.
PAULE MARSHALL
Brooklyn College 1952, novelist, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow.
FRANK McCOURT
Brooklyn College M.A. 1967, novelist, won Pulitzer Prize for Angela's Ashes.
MARTIN MENDELSOHN
Brooklyn College 1963, helped establish U.S. Department of Justice Special Litigation Unit, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals living illegally in the United States.
SOIA MENTSCHIKOFF
Hunter College 1934; dean University of Miami Law School; first female partner of major American law firm; first woman elected president of American Association of Law Schools (1974).
CAROL COOPERMAN NADELSON
Brooklyn College 1957, first woman president of the American Psychiatric Association; advocate for women in the field of medicine.
GLORIA NAYLOR
Brooklyn College 1981, novelist; American Book Award; author, Linden Hills, Mama Day, Bailey's Café, The Women of Brewster Place.
ARNO ALLAN PENZIAS
City College 1954, Nobel Prize in Physics 1978.
DEBORAH TOBIAS PORITZ
Brooklyn College 1958, first female chief justice of New Jersey Supreme Court; first female New Jersey attorney general, 1994-1996.
SYLVIA PORTER
Hunter College 1932, syndicated financial columnist.
COLIN POWELL
City College 1958, former U.S. Secretary of State and chair, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
MINA REES
Hunter College, mathematician, first president CUNY Graduate School and University Center.
GILLIAN REYNOLDS
Hunter College 1988, third African-American woman to earn Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T.
MYRNA RIVERA
Lehman College 1974, founder National Hispanic Employment Program, one of the first U.S. Hispanic investment consulting firms.
JONAS SALK
City College 1934, developed first polio vaccine.
DANIEL SCHORR
City College 1938, journalist
BRIGHT SHENG
Queens College M.A. 1984, composer, pianist and MacArthur Fellow.
STEPHEN B. SHEPARD
City College 1961, dean, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; former editor Business Week.
PAUL SIMON
Queens College 1963, singer songwriter, 12 Grammy Awards.
JIMMY SMITS
Brooklyn College 1980, Emmy Award-winning actor; starred in L.A. Law, NYPD Blue and The West Wing.
SEYMOUR STERNBERG
City College 1965, chair and CEO, New York Life Insurance Company.
SILVIO TORRES-SAILLANT
Brooklyn College 1979, founding director Dominican Studies Institute, City College; director Latino-Latin American Studies, Syracuse University.
CHARLES B. WANG
Queens College 1967, co-founder of Computer Associates International with Russell M. Artzt (Queens College 1968); now chairman emeritus; majority owner, New York Islanders hockey team.
GEORGE WEISSMAN
City College, chairman and CEO Phillip Morris; chair, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
JOE WERSHBA
Brooklyn College 1941, and SHIRLEY WERSHBA, Brooklyn College, 1943, reporters/editors at Edward R. Murrow's "See it Now" on CBS, which helped bring down Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
ROSALYN YALOW
Hunter College 1941, Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1988.
SHERRY YARD
NYC College of Technology 1989, executive pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago, Beverly Hills.
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