List of University at Albany people

This is a list of University of Albany people.

Arts

 * Phoebe Adams (MFA 1978), painter and sculptor
 * Sally Sheinman, painter, installation artist, digital artist

Business

 * Steven Berkowitz (1980), former Senior Vice President of Microsoft Online Services, and CEO of MOVE
 * Jang Young-sik (PhD 1970), economist, former president of the Korea Electric Power Company
 * Edward A. Maher (1867), president of the Third Avenue Railway
 * William Orton (1847), president of the Western Union Telegraph Company
 * Norman E. Snyder (1983), co-founder of SoBe
 * Ronn Torossian, (1995), CEO of 5W Public Relations, the 13th largest PR agency in the US
 * Tony Vinciquerra (1977), former CEO of Fox Entertainment Group and current CEO and chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment
 * Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani

Education

 * Herman Aguinis, George Washington University School of Business professor and 77th president of the Academy of Management
 * Delia E. Wilder Carson (1833-1917), art educator
 * Michael R. Gottfredson, former president of the University of Oregon
 * Lucy Stedman Lamson (1857-1926), business woman, educator
 * Harris Pastides, 29th President of the University of South Carolina

Government, law, and public policy

 * Mike Arcuri (1981), former District Attorney for Oneida County, New York; former representative for New York's 24th congressional district
 * Catherine Bertini (1971), former Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme; Fellow of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
 * Kevin Chambers (BA 1997), associate deputy attorney general in the Biden administration.
 * Rosa Clemente, 2008 Green Party vice presidential candidate
 * William J. Condon (BA 1981), New York State Supreme Court Justice Tenth Judicial District (2008-2022)
 * Scott de la Vega, acting United States Secretary of Interior under Joe Biden
 * Abdirahman Mohamud Farole (1990), former president of the Puntland region of Somalia
 * Christopher Hahn (BA 1994) Fox News contributor and syndicated radio host
 * Lansing Hotaling (1856), District Attorney of Albany County; member of the New York State Assembly
 * Gerald Jennings, mayor of Albany, New York
 * Benjamin Kallos, lawyer and politician
 * Lawrence Korb (PhD 1969), Council on Foreign Relations and Center for American Progress; Assistant Secretary of Defense (1981–85)
 * Seth Marnin (BA, MA), judge, New York Court of Claims (2023–present), and first openly transgender male judge in the United States
 * John M. McHugh (MPA 1977), Congressman from New York's 23rd congressional district (1993–2009); U.S. Secretary of the Army (2009–2015)
 * Harvey Milk (1951), gay rights figure; former San Francisco city supervisor; assassinated in 1978
 * Susan Molinari (BA 1980, MA 1982), former New York Congresswoman, Staten Island
 * Zina Lisandrou Panagidi (1992), Mayor of Lefkoniko
 * Joseph E. Persico (1952), best-selling author of Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial; biographer of Edward R. Murrow, Nelson Rockefeller, William Casey; former Nelson Rockefeller speechwriter
 * John D. Porcari (1985), Deputy U.S. Secretary of Transportation under the Obama administration; former Maryland Secretary of Transportation
 * Angelo L. Santabarbara (BS, 2001), New York State Assemblyman from New York's 111th district (2013–present)
 * Louis R. Tobacco (1994), New York State Assemblyman (62nd District)
 * Christine A. Varney, (1977), Assistant Attorney General; United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division
 * Mark Weprin (BA 1983), former member of the New York State Assembly and New York City Council
 * Richard C. Wesley (1971), judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit
 * Lee M. Zeldin (BA 2001), United States Representative from New York's 1st congressional district (2015–2023); New York State Senator from New York's 3rd district (2011-2014)

Journalism

 * Tom Junod (1980), journalist and writer for Esquire magazine since 1997
 * Gloria Rojas, journalist
 * Bob Ryan (1967), former lead weatherman, WRC-TV (Channel 4, NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C.)
 * Tameka Abraham (2017), journalist and writer for Essence Magazine, Interview Magazine, Greatest Magazine and more.
 * Adrianne Baughns-Wallace, Broadcast journalism, WFSB, Channel 3 in Hartford, Connecticut, EssenceTelevision, WPIX-TV in New York City

Literature

 * Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of the books Friday Black and Chain-Gang All-Stars
 * Emma Lee Benedict (1857-1937), editor, educator, author
 * Marcia Brown, children's author
 * Stephen Adly Guirgis (1990), playwright (Jesus Hopped the A Train, Our Lady of 121st Street)
 * Joyce Hinnefeld, writer of fiction and nonfiction
 * Gregory Maguire (1976), author of the books Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked (which became a Broadway musical)
 * Paul Pines, poet, writer, memoirist; founded The Tin Palace, a jazz nightclub on the Bowery in New York City, and the Jazz at the Lake: Lake George Jazz Weekend
 * Radclyffe (Dr. Lenora Ruth Barot), writer and editor of lesbian romance, paranormal romance, erotica and mystery; founder and publisher of Bold Stroke Books
 * Tricia Springstubb, children's book and middle grade author

Performing arts & broadcasting

 * Priya Anand, Indian film actress and model
 * Awkwafina, aka Nora Lum (2011), American rapper, television personality, and actress.
 * Edward Burns, film actor and director
 * Carolee Carmello (1983), Broadway actress and singer
 * Randy Cohen (1971), former writer for Late Night with David Letterman; currently writes "The Ethicist" column for the New York Times Magazine and answers ethical questions from listeners of All Things Considered
 * Jamie Gold (1991), television producer and 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion
 * Harold Gould (1947), actor (The Sting, Rhoda, Golden Girls)
 * Steve Guttenberg, film actor
 * Randye Kaye, author, radio talk show host, and voice actress
 * Brian Lehrer (1973), radio talk show host
 * Brandon Jay McLaren (2002), television actor
 * Ignacyo Matynia (2013), film and television actor (Break Every Chain)
 * Michael Nolin (1970), film studio executive; producer of Mr. Holland's Opus; screenwriter of Maniac Magee; professor at Savannah College of Art and Design
 * John Ortiz, film and TV actor (The Job, Carlito's Way, Miami Vice, American Gangster)
 * Stacey Prussman (1992), actress, radio host, stand-up comedian, 2021 New York City mayoral candidate
 * Howard Reig (1942), radio and television announcer
 * Marie Roda, television personality (The Real World, The Challenge)
 * Allan Steele, actor and writer
 * Frank Whaley, film and television actor
 * D.B. Woodside (1991), actor (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24, Lucifer, Single Ladies)

Science

 * Frances E. Allen (1954), IBM Fellow, Turing Award winner (2006)
 * Sallie W. Chisholm (PhD 1974), biological oceanographer and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 * Alan M. Davis (1970), IEEE Fellow for contributions to software engineering; author; entrepreneur; pomologist; horticulturalist
 * Lois Privor-Dumm (1986), director, Alliances and Information for PneumoADIP, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
 * Myriam Gorospe, scientist, head of the RNA Regulation Section at the National Institute on Aging (NIA)
 * Alanna Schepartz (1982), Milton Harris Professor of Chemistry at Yale University and Director, Yale Chemical Biology Institute; Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
 * Celal Sengor (1982), Turkish geologist, foreign member of the American Philosophical Society
 * Omar M. Yaghi (1985), James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry and Co-Director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at University of California, Berkeley; recipient of the American Chemical Society Chemistry of Materials Award (2009)

Social sciences

 * Robert H. Babcock (BA 1953, MA 1957), historian
 * Anne Case (BA), economist
 * Philip B. Coulter (PhD 1966), political scientist
 * Debra Hope (PhD 1990), Clinical Psychologist
 * David Pietrusza (BA 1971, MA 1972), historian and author
 * William J. Taverner (1990), author, sexologist, editor of the American Journal of Sexuality Education
 * Gerhard Weinberg (1948), diplomatic and military historian

Sports

 * Rashad Barksdale (2007), NFL cornerback
 * Dave Clawson (MA, 1990), Head Football Coach, Wake Forest
 * Bouna Coundoul (attended 2002-04), Senegalese international soccer goalkeeper
 * James Jones (BA 1986, MA 1995), Head Coach of the Yale University Men's Basketball Team
 * Jordan Levine, professional lacrosse player
 * Ashley Massaro, professional wrestler
 * Brett Queener (2007), professional lacrosse player
 * Joe Resetarits, professional lacrosse player
 * Rob Senderoff, college basketball coach
 * Jason Siggers (born 1985), basketball player in the Israel Basketball Premier League
 * Lyle Thompson, professional lacrosse player, two-time Tewaaraton Award Winner
 * Tara VanDerveer (attended 1971–72), head women's basketball coach at Stanford University; member of Naismith Memorial and Women's Basketball Halls of Fame
 * Jarren Williams (defensive back), NFL defensive back

Other

 * Arlene Istar Lev (1986), family therapist and author of Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and their Families
 * Suzanne Lyall, sophomore who disappeared after getting off a bus at Collins Circle in 1998
 * Philip Markoff (2007), deceased, accused "Craigslist Killer"
 * Peter Turkson, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church

Notable faculty

 * Frances Dorothy Acomb, historian
 * Manuel Alvar (1977–98), head of the Spanish Royal Academy; known for his linguistic atlases of Spain and Spanish South America
 * Branka Arsić, scholar of American literature, won the Modern Language Association's James Russell Lowell Prize in 2016
 * Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (1966–70), Spanish Novelist (1910–1999); won Cervantes Prize in 1985
 * Ronald A. Bosco (1975–present), Distinguished University Professor of English & American Literature (2004), SUNY Distinguished Service Professor (1992); president, Association for Documentary Editing; General Editor of The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harvard; has edited, co-edited (primarily with Joel Myerson), and authored over 20 volumes on Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Michael Wigglesworth, and Cotton Mather
 * Don Byrd (1971–present), poet and literary critic; works include his poetry collection Technics of Travel, the book-length poems The Great Dimestore Centennial and Aesop's Garden, an analysis of Charles Olson's Maximus, and his masterpiece of literary analysis The Poetics of Common Knowledge
 * JoAnne Carson, painter and sculptor, Guggenheim Fellow (2016)
 * Alan S. Chartock, political scientist and radio personality
 * John Frederick Dewey (1971–1982), structural geologist widely regarded as an authority on the development and evolution of mountain ranges; Fellow of the Royal Society, Wollaston Medal and Penrose Medal recipient, member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
 * Sandra K. Ellston, Shakespearean scholar, former Chair of Undergraduate Studies in English and co-director of the Humanities Center.
 * Joachim Frank (1976–present), computational biologist, School of Public Health; investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at New York State's Wadsworth Center; elected in 2006 to National Academy of Sciences and named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
 * Gordon G. Gallup (1975–present), evolutionary psychologist; developed the mirror test
 * M. E. Grenander (1948–89), professor of English, authority on Ambrose Bierce, and benefactor of the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives
 * George R. Goldner, art historian, former Drue Heinz Chairman of the Department of Drawings and Paints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
 * Pierre Joris (1992–present), poet, translator, anthologist; renowned translator of Paul Celan
 * Leonard Kastle (1978–89), director of The Honeymoon Killers and notable opera composer of Deseret and The Pariahs
 * William Kennedy (1974–present), 1984 winner of Pulitzer Prize for fiction for novel Ironweed; taught creative writing and journalism as UAlbany instructor from 1974 to 1982, thereafter full professor of creative writing; in 1983, awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, part of which went to UAlbany's New York State Writers Institute
 * Scott Lilienfeld, author
 * Michael J. Malbin (1990–present), political science, and expert on campaign finance; former speech writer to Richard B. Cheney
 * Jon Mandle (1994–present), philosopher who works on issues of political theory and global justice; author of What's Left of Liberalism? An Interpretation and Defense of Justice as Fairness and Global Justice: An Introduction
 * Ron McClamrock (1992–present), philosopher who works at the intersection of phenomenology and psychology; author of Existential Cognition: Minds in the World
 * Toni Morrison (1985–89), author, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author (works include Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon)
 * Paul Pimsleur (1970–76), linguist, educator and researcher of the language acquisition process, and author of Pimsleur Language Series
 * Vincent Schaefer, founder and longtime director of the Atmospheric Science Research Center (ASRC); discovered the first successful method of cloud seeding, with dry ice
 * Richard E. Stearns, emeritus (1978–2000), Turing Award winner for computational complexity theory
 * Bonnie Steinbock (1977–2014), philosopher, expert on reproductive ethics, and former chair of philosophy department
 * Bernard Vonnegut (1967–85), atmospheric scientist known for expertise in the physics of lightning; as a colleague of Vincent Schaefer at General Electric in 1946, discovered silver iodide method of cloud-seeding; older brother of author Kurt Vonnegut
 * David Wills (1998–2013), translator of Jacques Derrida