Notable Alumnae

Throughout the course of our history, Mount Holyoke women have gone on to set new standards in medicine, lead prestigious organizations, serve in Congress, publish groundbreaking works, and more. Our pioneering alumnae include:

• Poet Emily Dickinson 1848
• Frances Perkins 1902, the first woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet
• Dr. Virginia Apgar 1929, developer of the Apgar score, an internationally recognized test for evaluating the health of newborns
• Poet Virginia Hamilton Adair 1933
• Ella Grasso 1940, first woman governor elected in her own right; recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom  
• Gloria Johnson-Powell 1958, first African American woman to attain tenure at Harvard Medical School
• New York congresswoman Nita M. Lowey 1959
• Nancy J. Vickers 1967, president of Bryn Mawr College
• Elaine Tuttle Hansen 1969, president of Bates College
• Labor secretary Elaine Chao 1975
• Playwright Wendy Wasserstein 1971, winner of the Tony Award, the Dramatists Guild Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.
• Opera star Nancy Gustafson 1975
• Priscilla Painton 1980, editor-in-chief, Simon & Schuster; former executive editor, Time magazine
• Novelist and law professor Lan Cao 1983
• Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist and MacArthur Fellowship winner Suzan-Lori Parks 1985
• Kavita Ramdas 1985, president and CEO, Global Fund for Women
• Sonali Gulati 1996, documentary filmmaker and assistant professor, Department of Photography and Film, Virginia Commonwealth University