# List of Drexel University alumni

Drexel University is a private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The 16th largest private university in the nation, Drexel is made up of nine colleges and four schools, most of which serve both undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 96 undergraduate degree programs, 88 master's programs, and 35 doctoral programs. Drexel was founded as a technical school in 1891 for the "improvement of industrial education as a means of opening better and wider avenues of employment to young men and women." Drexel began awarding undergraduate degrees in 1914, starting with the Bachelor of Science in engineering; before that, Drexel granted certificates or diplomas in the field of enrollment. In 1931, Drexel began offering graduate degrees through the School of Home Economics.
Since its founding the university has graduated over 100,000 alumni. Certificate-earning alumni such as artist Violet Oakley and illustrator Frank Schoonover reflect the early emphasis on art as part of the university's curriculum. With World War II, the university's technical programs swelled, and as a result Drexel graduated alumni such as Paul Baran, one of the founding fathers of the Internet and one of the inventors of the packet switching network, and Norman Joseph Woodland the inventor of barcode technology. In addition to its emphasis on technology Drexel has graduated several notable athletes such as National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball players Michael Anderson and Malik Rose, and several notable business people such as Raj Gupta, former president and chief executive officer of Rohm and Haas, and Nicholas Schorsch, chief executive officer of VEREIT, and Nicholas Howley, founder and chairman of TransDigm Group.

## Notable alumni

* A "—" indicates that the information is unknown.

### Degree abbreviations

* Cert – Certificate
* BS – Bachelor of Science
* Postgraduate degrees:
   * MA – Master of Arts
   * MBA – Master of Business Administration
   * MD – Doctor of Medicine
   * MS – Master of Science
   * PhD – Doctor of Philosophy

### Business

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Ramani Ayer | 1973 | PhD | Former CEO of The Hartford Financial Services |
| Michael Baum | 1985 | BS | Founder and CEO of Splunk and Founder.org; former VP of e-Commerce at Yahoo! and The Walt Disney Company |
| Albert Boscov | 1952 | BS | Former CEO of Boscov's |
| Douglas Briggs | 1970 | BS | Former president and CEO of QVC |
| John C. Browne | 1965 | BS | Former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Kenneth C. Dahlberg | 1967 | BS | Former CEO of SAIC and previously Executive Vice President of General Dynamics |
| Dana Dornsife | 1983 | BS | CEO of Lazarex Cancer Foundation |
| Elaine Garzarelli | 1969 1977 | BS MBA | Financial analyst credited with predicting Black Monday, the stock market crash of 1987 |
| Wayne Gattinella | 1976 | BS | Former CEO of WebMD |
| Phil Gallagher | 1982 | BS | CEO of Avnet |
| Yakir Gola | 2015 | BS | Co-founder of Gopuff |
| Christopher Gray | 2015 | BS | Founder and CEO of Scholly |
| Raj Gupta | 1972 | MBA | Former president and CEO of Rohm and Haas |
| Nicholas Howley | 1975 | BS | Founder and executive chairman of TransDigm Group |
| Michael J. Hennigan | 1982 | BS | CEO of Marathon Petroleum |
| Rafael Ilishayev | 2015 | BS | Co-founder of Gopuff |
| Jeffrey L. Johnson | 1967 | BS | Former president of North American operations for Philips |
| Bijan Khosrowshahi | 1983 1986 | BS MBA | Former president and CEO of Fuji Fire and Marine Insurance |
| Bennett S. LeBow | 1960 | BS | Former CEO and chairman of the board of Borders and Chairman of the Board of Vector Group |
| Earl Lestz | 1961 | BS | Former president of operations for Paramount Studios |
| Raaja Kanwar | 1993 | BS | Co-founder of UFO Moviez |
| Richelle Parham | 1991 | BS | Former vice president and chief marketing officer of eBay |
| Dorcas Bates Reilly | 1947 | BS | Invented the green bean casserole while working as a staff member in the home economics department of the Campbell Soup Company |
| Harold Shaub | 1939 | BS | Former CEO of Campbell Soup Company |
| Toots Shor | 1955 | BS | Renowned saloon keeper in New York City |
| Nicholas Schorsch | — | — | CEO and co-founder of VEREIT |
| Anne L. Stevens | 1980 | BS | Non-executive director at Anglo American plc, former CEO of GKN Aerospace |
| Richard J. Tobin | — | MBA | CEO of Dover Corporation, director of KeyCorp |
| Inhyok Cha | 2008 | MBA | Former vice president of Samsung SDS |
| Christina Visco | - | - | CEO of TerraLeaf, entrepeneur and businesswomen in the Cannabis Industry |

### Humanities
#### Architects

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Juan M. Arellano | 1911 | Cert | Filipino architect who designed the Manila Metropolitan Theater |
| Douglas Ellington | 1912 | Cert | Architect known for his work in the Art Deco style; first American to win the Rougevin prize |
| William Sidney Pittman | 1900 | Cert | Architect who designed notable buildings in Washington, D.C. and Texas |
| Rudolph Weaver | 1905 1919 | Cert BS | Architect; founding dean of three architecture schools; official architect for two universities and one state system of three universities |

#### Arts and entertainment

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Chuck Barris | 1953 | BS | Entertainer; creator of The Gong Show |
| Louise Heims Beck | 1911 | BS | Vaudeville performer, theatre manager, librarian, co-founder and chairman of the American Theatre Wing, chairman of the Actors' Fund of America (1960-1978), and head organizer of the 1st Tony Awards |
| Howard Benson | 1980 | BS | Grammy Award-winning music producer |
| Jake Ewald | 2016 | BS | Guitarist and vocalist; member of Modern Baseball and Slaughter Beach, Dog |
| Ian Farmer | 2016 | BS | Bassist and vocalist; member of Modern Baseball |
| Sean Huber | 2015 | BS | Guitarist, drummer, and vocalist; member of Modern Baseball and Steady Hands |
| David Kresh | 1966 | MS | Poet and reference specialist at the Library of Congress |
| Elizabeth McCracken | 1997 | MS | Author of Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry and professor of creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin |
| Caitlyn McGonigal | 2021 | BS | Photographer, founder of Ascribe Magazine, and youngest entry into Drexel's 40 Under 40 |
| Chris McKendry | 1990 | BS | ESPN anchor and journalist |
| Katherine McNamara | 2013 | BS | Actress, best known for her role as Clary Fray in Shadowhunters |
| Pat Munday | 1978 | BS | Author, professor, and environmentalist |
| Violet Oakley | 1948 | — | Artist; first woman to receive the Gold Medal of Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts |
| Maxfield Parrish | 1895 | Cert | Early twentieth century artist whose works included illustrating Mother Goose in Prose and Collier's Weekly |
| Meinhardt Raabe | 1970 | MBA | Actor, known for his role as the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz |
| Frank Schoonover | 1900 | Cert | Illustrator for Hopalong Cassidy stories as well as the book A Princess of Mars |
| Susan Seidelman | 1973 | BS | Filmmaker whose film Smithereens was the first American independent film invited to compete at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival |
| Cameron Snyder | 1941 | — | Sportswriter, Dick McCann Memorial Award winner |
| Sarah Stolfa | 2005 | BS | Photographer, won The New York Times Photography Contest for College Students in 2004 |
| Corinne Trang | 2003 | BS | Award-winning author of several Asian-themed cookbooks |
| Jack Wall | 1986 | BS | Video game music composer |
| Stephen Ward | 2003 | BS | Host and executive producer of Tough Love |
| Stephen M. Wolownik | 1989 | MS | Pioneer in the Russian and Eastern European music community in the United States |
| Zircon (Andrew Aversa) | 2009 | MS | Founder and CEO of Impact Soundworks |
| Tom Fulp | 2002 | BS | Founder of Newgrounds |

#### Education

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Michael Behe | 1974 | BS | Biochemist, professor, leading proponent of intelligent design, and a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture |
| Wiesław Binienda | 1987 | PhD | Professor and chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Akron |
| George Campbell Jr. | 1968 | BS | Former president of the Cooper Union |
| Albert Carnesale | 1961 | MS | Former chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles and former Provost of Harvard University |
| Robert Croneberger | 1962 | MS | Librarian, one of American Libraries' "100 of the Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century" |
| Eli Fromm | 1962 1964 | BS MS | Gordon Prize-winning research professor of engineering at Drexel University |
| Moshe Kam | 1985 1987 | MS PhD | 49th president of IEEE and dean of the New Jersey Institute of Technology |
| Raphael Carl Lee | 1975 | MS | Professor at the University of Chicago, surgeon, and 1981 MacArthur Fellow |
| Peter J. Liacouras | 1953 | BS | Former president of Temple University |
| Celestino Pennoni | 1963 1966 | BS MS | Former interim president of Drexel University from 1994–1995 and 2009–2010 |
| Alia Sabur | 2006 | MS | Child prodigy and Guinness World Record holder for "World's Youngest Professor" |
| Jiang Mianheng | 1991 | PhD | Former President of ShanghaiTech University and the Former Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Elizabeth Gray Vining | 1925 | BS | Former tutor to Emperor Akihito of Japan |

### Medicine and health

The Drexel University College of Medicine retroactively considers graduates from all of the medical institutes that it has acquired to be alumni of the College of Medicine and Drexel University. This includes MCP Hahnemann University (1993–2002), Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1850–1993), and Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia (1848–1993).
    DUCOM – Drexel University College of Medicine
    HMC – Hahnemann Medical College
    MCP – Medical College of Pennsylvania
    WMCP – Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania
| Name | Grad year | Degree | College | Notability |
| Annie Lowrie Alexander | 1884 | MD | WMCP | First licensed female physician in the Southern United States |
| Isaac Ambrose Barber | 1872 | MD | HMC | Physician and former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland |
| Rose Mary Hatem Bonsack | 1960 | MD | MCP | Physician, former Maryland delegate for Harford County, Maryland |
| Myrtelle Canavan | 1905 | MD | WMCP | One of the first female pathologists; namesake of Canavan disease |
| LeRoy Carhart | 1973 | MD | HMC | Physician who participated in the Supreme Court cases Stenberg v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Carhart |
| Deni Carise | 1993 | PhD | | Researcher in clinical psychology and psychiatry; consultant and public speaker |
| Rebecca Cole | 1867 | MD | WMCP | The second African American woman to become a physician in the United States |
| Matilda Evans | 1897 | MD | WMCP | First African American woman licensed to practice medicine in South Carolina |
| Nancy E. Gary | 1962 | MD | WMCP | Executive Vice President of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Dean of its F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine |
| Harold Griffith | 1923 | MD | HMC | Canadian anesthesiologist who introduced the use of ethylene and cyclopropane in anesthesiology |
| Stuart Hameroff | 1973 | MD | HMC | Professor at the University of Arizona known for his study of consciousness |
| Lillie Rosa Minoka Hill | 1899 | MD | WMCP | Second female Native American physician |
| Mady Hornig | 1988 | MD | MCP | Psychiatrist and associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University |
| Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead | 1888 | MD | WMCP | Obstetrician and author of A History of Women in Medicine: From the Earliest of Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century |
| Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi | 1864 | MD | WMCP | First woman to become a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine |
| Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson | 1891 | MD | WMCP | First female African-American physician in Alabama |
| Anandi Gopal Joshi | 1886 | MD | WMCP | Second Indian female physician to earn a medical degree through training in Western medicine |
| Gurubai Karmarkar | 1893 | MD | WMCP | Medical Marathi Christian missionary in India |
| Kenneth S. Kosik | 1976 | MD | MCP | Author and researcher in neuroscience |
| Jennifer S. Lawton | 1992 | MD | DUCOM | Thoracic surgeon, professor, and researcher |
| Sandra Lee | 1998 | MD | MCP | Dermatologist also known as "Dr. Pimple Popper" who gained popularity for her YouTube channel |
| Gary K. Michelson | 1975 | MD | HMC | Spinal surgeon and inventor |
| Mary I. O'Connor | 1985 | MD | MCP | first director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at the Yale School of Medicine |
| Susan La Flesche Picotte | 1889 | MD | WMCP | First female Native American physician |
| Joseph H. Romig | 1896 | MD | HMC | Physician and one-term mayor of Anchorage, Alaska in 1937 |
| Jameela Al Salman | | Medicine residency | Hahnemann University | Associate professor |
| Ellis Reynolds Shipp | 1883 | MD | WMCP | One of the first female physicians in Utah |
| David Shulkin | 1986 | MD | MCP | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |
| J. Howard Swick | 1906 | MD | HMC | Physician and former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania |
| Augustin Thompson | 1867 | MD | HMC | Physician and creator of Moxie |
| Walter Van Fleet | 1880 | MD | HMC | American horticulturist known for rose cultivars and as physiologist for the federal Department of Agriculture |
| Robert J. Wicks | 1977 | PhD | HMC | Clinical psychologist and author |
| Victoria Zdrok | 1997 2003 | MA PhD | DUCOM | Model and sex columnist |

### Politics and public service

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Jack Agnew | — | — | United States Army private first class in World War II, a member of the Filthy Thirteen, whose exploits inspired the novel and film The Dirty Dozen |
| Gary R. Chiusano | 1973 | BS | New Jersey General Assembly assemblyman for the 24th legislative district |
| Ruth Hale | 1916 | — | Found for women's rights in 1920s; member of the Algonquin Round Table |
| Malcolm Kenyatta | 2021 | MS | Pennsylvania State Representative for the 181st district |
| Amara Mohamed Konneh | 1999 | BS | Former Minister of Finance of Liberia |
| Earle I. Mack | 1959 | BS | Former United States ambassador to Finland, partner of the Mack Company, and award-winning film producer |
| Albert Branson Maris | 1926 | BS | Federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit |
| William H. Milliken, Jr. | — | — | United States Congressman from Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional district from 1959 to 1965 |
| Peter Mafany Musonge | 1967 | BS | Former Prime Minister of Cameroon |
| Victoria Napolitano | 2010 | BS, MS | Youngest female mayor in New Jersey history; youngest mayor of Moorestown, New Jersey |
| Peter O'Keefe | | MBA | Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 161 from 1975 to 1978 |
| Alassane Ouattara | 1965 | BS | Current President of Côte d'Ivoire |
| Arthur Raymond Randolph | 1966 | BS | Federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit |
| John Roberts Reading | 1966 | BS | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania |
| Celeste Riley | 2002 | MS | New Jersey General Assembly assemblywoman for the 3rd legislative district |
| Lindsay Walters | 2007 | BS | White House Deputy Press Secretary under Donald Trump |
| Lawrence G. Williams | — | — | United States Congressman from Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional district from 1966 to 1975 |

### Science and engineering

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Sirous Asgari | 1997 | PhD | Developer of lithium ion battery materials - central in a court case against the US government |
| Paul Baran | 1949 | BS | One of the inventors of packet switching and a founding father of the Internet |
| Michael Behe | 1974 | BS | American biochemist and leading advocate of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design |
| Lin Bin | 1992 | MS | Co-founder and president of Xiaomi, a member of the board of advisors at Tufts University School of Engineering |
| Samuel P. De Bow, Jr. | 1976 | BS | Former rear admiral in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, and its director from 2003 to 2007. |
| Bruce Eisenstein | 1965 | MS | 38th President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| Lex Fridman | 2014 | PhD | Artificial intelligence researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| David H. Geiger | — | BS | Architect and engineer who invented the air-supported fabric roof system used in domed stadiums |
| Walter Golaski | 1946 | BS | Developer of the first practical artificial blood vessel replacement |
| Harry Gold | 1936 | Cert | Laboratory chemist who was convicted of being the courier for a number of Soviet spy rings during the Manhattan Project |
| John Gruber | 1996 | BS | Creator of the computer markup language Markdown and the website Daring Fireball |
| Jon Hall | 1973 | BS | Board chair for the Linux Professional Institute |
| Vasant Honavar | 1984 | MS | Director Pennsylvania State University Center for Big Data Analytics and Discovery Informatics |
| Moshe Kam | 1985 1987 | MS PhD | 49th President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| Bruce E. Maryanoff | 1969 1972 | BS PhD | Medicinal and organic chemist responsible for the drug Topiramate |
| Cynthia A. Maryanoff | 1972 | BS | Organic and biomaterials chemist; winner of two American Chemical Society National Awards |
| Arlene Minkiewicz | 1988 | MS | Chief scientist at PRICE Systems |
| James G. Nell | 1961 | BS | Engineer and systems integrator |
| Hsieh Shou-shing | 1980 | MS | Former minister of the Nuclear Safety Commission |
| Bernard Silver | 1947 | BS | Early developer of barcode technology with Norman Joseph Woodland |
| Norman Joseph Woodland | 1947 | BS | Inventor of barcode technology |

#### NASA

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| James P. Bagian | 1973 | BS | Astronaut, physician, colonel in the United States Air Force Reserves, and the pararescue flight surgeon for the 939th Air Rescue Wing |
| Padi Boyd | 1993 | PhD | Astrophysicist, head of NASA's Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory and an Associate Director at the Goddard Space Flight Center |
| Moogega Cooper | 2009 | PhD | Astronomer, lead of Planetary Protection for the Mars 2020 Mission |
| Christopher Ferguson | 1984 | BS | Astronaut and pilot |
| Pete Frank | — | MS | NASA engineer who served as the lead flight director for the Apollo 14 and Apollo 16 crewed lunar landing missions |
| Paul W. Richards | 1987 | BS | Astronaut and mechanical engineer |
| Patricia Robertson | 1989 | MD | Astronaut and physician |

### Sports

| Name | Grad year | Degree | Notability |
| Michael Anderson | 1988 | BS | Former NBA player with the San Antonio Spurs |
| Justin Best | 2019 | BS | Olympic rower |
| Brent Bommentre | — | — | Ice dancer, 2008 Four Continents bronze medalist and a two-time (2008 & 2009) U.S. national bronze medalist |
| Jim Casciano | 1977 | BS | Men's basketball head coach at the New Jersey Institute of Technology |
| J. R. Castle | — | — | Former lacrosse player with the Philadelphia Wings |
| Robert Church | 2013 | BS | Lacrosse player; fifth overall pick in the 2013 National Lacrosse League Entry Draft |
| Mark Gerban | 2003 | BS | Represented the Palestinian Rowing Federation at the 2005–2007 World Rowing Championships, 16th-place finish and highest world championship result of any Palestinian athlete |
| Tom Grebis | 1954 | — | Former football coach at Drexel |
| Ashley Howard | 2004 | BA | College basketball coach; assistant coach at Villanova 2013–2018; head coach at La Salle 2018–2022 |
| Damion Lee | 2015 | BS | NBA player with the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors |
| Eric Lynch | 2013 | BS | 2009 Wendy's Heisman nominee, soccer |
| Zach Makovsky | 2006 | BS | Wrestler; professional mixed martial arts fighter; formerly competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship |
| Gabriela Mărginean | 2010 | BS | Women's National Basketball Association player formerly with the Minnesota Lynx |
| Frank Masley | 1989 | BS | Luger; Olympic flag-bearer for USA in the 1984 Olympic opening ceremonies |
| Bashir Mason | 2007 | BS | Hired as basketball head coach at Wagner College beginning in March 2012; was a four-year starter for Drexel while attending school |
| Virginia Halas McCaskey | 1943 | BBA | Football executive, owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) |
| Ben McIntosh | 2014 | BBA | Lacrosse player with the Philadelphia Wings; first overall pick in the 2015 National Lacrosse League Entry Draft |
| Travis Mohr | 2004 | BS | Gold and silver medal winner in swimming events at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, holds one world record |
| Jim Ostendarp | — | — | Former NFL player with the New York Giants; collegiate football and wrestling coach |
| Jeff Parke | 2003 | — | Professional soccer player with the Seattle Sounders FC and previously with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and New York Red Bulls |
| Malik Rose | 1996 | BS | Former NBA player with the Charlotte Hornets, the San Antonio Spurs, the New York Knicks, and the Oklahoma City Thunder |
| Fox Stanton | — | — | Former collegiate football coach |
| John Szefc | 1989 | BA | College baseball coach at Marist and Maryland |