# List of Florida International University people

This list of notable Florida International University alumni includes alumni, faculty, and presidents of Florida International University in Miami, Florida, which includes 26 colleges and schools.

## Alumni

With more than 150,500 alumni around the world, the Florida International University Golden Panthers constitute one of the fastest-growing university alumni groups in the state of Florida. FIU graduates more than 8,000 students a year and confers more than half of all degrees awarded by universities in South Florida.

### Sports
#### Baseball

| Athlete | Notability |
| Brad Eldred | professional MLB baseball player |
| Mike Lowell | professional MLB baseball player |
| Garrett Wittels | professional baseball player; 56-game college hitting streak |

#### Basketball

| Athlete | Notability |
| Oren Aharoni | Israeli basketball coach and former Israeli Basketball Premier League basketball player |
| Carlos Arroyo | professional NBA and Israeli Basketball Premier League basketball player |
| Raja Bell | professional NBA basketball player |
| Rakeem Buckles | professional Israeli Basketball Premier League basketball player |
| Andrea Nagy | professional WNBA basketball player |

#### Equestrian

| Athlete | Notability |
| Margie Goldstein-Engle | equestrian |

#### Football

| Athlete | Notability |
| Jonnu Smith | NFL pro football player, Miami Dolphins |
| Antwan Barnes | NFL pro football player, free agent |
| Johnathan Cyprien | NFL pro football player, Tennessee Titans |
| Anthony Gaitor | NFL pro football player, Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| T. Y. Hilton | NFL pro football player, Indianapolis Colts |
| Nick Turnbull | NFL pro football player, Atlanta Falcons |
| Tourek Williams | NFL pro football player, San Diego Chargers |

#### Soccer

| Athlete | Notability |
| Bobby Boswell | MLS pro soccer player, Houston Dynamo |
| Jeff Cassar | MLS pro soccer player, FC Dallas |
| Juan Francisco Guerra | Venezuelan First Division pro soccer player, New York Cosmos (2010) |
| Santiago Patiño | MLS pro soccer player, Orlando City |
| Steve Ralston | MLS pro soccer player, New England Revolution |
| Chris Antonopoulos | Pro soccer player, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, U.S. Men's National Beach Soccer Team |

#### Track & field

| Athlete | Notability |
| Ronald Forbes | Olympic athlete, 110m hurdles, Cayman Islands (2008, 2012, 2016) |
| Ena Guevara | Olympic athlete, marathon, Peru (1984, 1992) |
| Tayna Lawrence | Olympic athlete, 100 meters, Jamaica (2000, 2004) |
| Aubrey Smith | Olympic athlete, long jump, Canada (2016) |

#### Other sports

* David Avellan, electrical engineering graduate, mixed martial artist
* Steve Meister (born 1958), tennis player

### Authors and entertainers

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Carlos Alvarado-Larroucau | francophone writer, poet, essayist, professor |
| Liz Balmaseda | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist |
| Steve Benen | political writer and contributor to and producer of The Rachel Maddow Show |
| Richard Blanco | inaugural poet, public speaker, author |
| Niala Boodhoo | journalist and host of the Asian American Journalists Association program AAJA At ThisTime |
| Dennis Lehane | author of Mystic River |
| Ana Menendez | fiction author and journalist |
| Amy Serrano | filmmaker, author, public speaker |
| Javier Stanziola | author, playwright, theatre director |

#### Authors, actors, television, musicians

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Aimee Carrero | actress, Young & Hungry, Elena of Avalor |
| Janet Dacal | Broadway actress and singer, known for her role as Carla in In the Heights |
| Allie DiMeco | actress and musician, known for her role as Rosalina in Nickelodeon's The Naked Brothers Band |
| Andy García | Academy Award-nominated actor |
| Ricki Noel Lander | actress, fashion designer |
| Kimberly Leemans | model, America's Next Top Model contestant |
| Syesha Mercado | singer, American Idol contestant (Season 7) |
| Natalia Navarro | Miss Colombia 2009, placed 12th at Miss Universe 2010 |
| Jackie Nespral | television anchor for WTVJ, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale affiliate of NBC |
| Dawn Ostroff | chief content officer and advertising business officer of Spotify |
| Danny Pino | actor, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC |
| Carlos Rafael Rivera | Emmy-winning and nominated film and television composer |
| Tony Succar | musician, songwriter, percussionist and producer, Latin Grammy Award nominee and winner |
| Nadia Turner | singer, American Idol contestant (Season 4) |
| Henry Vega | award-winning composer, musician |
| Vijay Yesudas | South Indian singer |

### Culinary

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Tam Pham | Michelin Guide Florida 2024 Young Chef Award winner |

### Entertainment

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Dawn Ostroff | President of Entertainment, CW Television Network |
| Elizabeth Perez | Emmy-winning television journalist and presenter, CNN en Español |
| Steve Tello | television executive and Senior Vice President and General Manager of Fox Sports Florida |

### Law and politics
#### House of Representatives, U.S. Court Judges

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Cecilia Altonaga | U.S. District Court Judge (first Cuban-American woman appointed) |
| Barbara Lagoa | U.S. Circuit Judge for the 11th Circuit and former justice of the Supreme Court of Florida (first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court of Florida) |
| David Rivera | Florida's 25th Congressional District |
| Ileana Ros-Lehtinen | member of the United States House of Representatives and first Hispanic from South Florida |

#### State and local politics

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Carlos Álvarez | 6th Mayor of Miami-Dade County |
| Bryan Avila | member of the Florida House of Representatives for district 111 |
| Manny Diaz | 41st Mayor of Miami and the Chair of the Florida Democratic Party |
| Katie Edwards | member of the Florida House of Representatives for district 98 |
| Anitere Flores | member of the Florida Senate for district 37 |
| Rene Garcia | member of the Florida Senate for district 38 |
| Jeanette Nuñez | member of the Florida House of Representatives for district 119 and 20th Lieutenant Governor of Florida |
| Mark Pafford | member of the Florida House of Representatives for district 86 |
| Kirill Reznik | member of the Maryland House of Delegates for district 39 |
| Ian Richards | former county court judge in the Florida's 17th Judicial Circuit (first African-American judge to be elected countywide in Broward County) |
| Evelyn Sanguinetti | 47th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois |
| Francis Suarez | 43rd and current Mayor of Miami |

#### Foreign governments

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Patrece Charles-Freeman | Jamaican public and environmental health consultant, former Executive Director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), as well as a political candidate with the Jamaica Labour Party |
| Danny Danon | Israeli politician and chairman of the U.N. Legal Committee |
| Kim Simplis Barrow | Belizean activist, philanthropist, and spouse of the 4th Prime Minister of Belize |
| Richie Sookhai | Trinidadian and Tobagonian politician, engineer and businessman; current Government Senator and former President of the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIC) |

### Education

| Alumnus | Notability |
| Carmen Reinhart | Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School; World Bank Chief Economist |
| Elsa Murano | former President of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas |
| Bertha Vazquez | director of education for the Center for Inquiry, director of the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), and science teacher at the George Washington Carver Middle School |
| Shekhar Bhansali | division director in Electrical, Communication and Cyber Systems (ECCS) at the National Science Foundation. |

### Science and space

| Alumnus | Notability |
| James F. O'Brien | professor at UC-Berkeley, has patents pending for his explosive computer animation techniques |
| Edith Kellnhauser | (1933–2019), German nursing scientist, educator, and writer |
| David Shor | (1991–), data scientist |

## Faculty

* Irtishad Ahmad, professor and chairperson of Florida International University Department of Construction Management and editor in chief of the Journal of Management in Engineering, ASCE
* Thomas E. Baker, professor of constitutional law in the College of Law
* Lynne Barrett, professor of English and founder of Gulf Stream Magazine
* Stephan Charman, associate professor of psychology
* Rita Buck-Crockett, assistant athletic director, head volleyball and beach volleyball coach
* William Darrow, professor of public health
* John Dufresne, professor of creative writing, editor of Gulf Stream Magazine, author
* Elizabeth Price Foley, professor of law in the College of Law
* Edgar Fuller, professor of mathematics and statistics
* Orlando Jacinto García, professor of music and director of the Composition Program for the School of Music
* Steven Heine, professor of religion and history; Director of the Institute for Asian Studies
* Mark Hetzler, professor of music and orchestra
* Sundaraja Sitharama Iyengar, professor of computer science in the College of Engineering and Computing
* Maureen Kenny, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology
* Abraham Lavender, professor of sociology; president of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies
* Stephen Leatherman, director of the FIU Coastal Research Lab, nicknamed "Dr. Beach" for his annual ratings of American beaches (issued every Memorial Day weekend)
* Zaida Morales-Martínez, professor emeritus of chemistry
* Bruce Nissen, professor of labor studies and director of research at the Center for Labor Research and Studies and director of the FIU Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy
* Ronni Reis, tennis coach
* Stewart Robertson, professor of orchestral studies and conductor of the FIU Symphony Orchestra
* Marco Rubio, adjunct professor of politics and international relations at Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs

## University presidents

| President | Tenure |
| Charles Perry | 1965–1976 |
| Harold Crosby | 1976–1979 |
| Gregory Baker Wolfe | 1979–1986 |
| Modesto A. Maidique | 1986–2009 |
| Mark B. Rosenberg | 2009–2022 |
| Kenneth A. Jessell | 2022– |