List of George Mason University people explained

This list includes alumni and faculty of George Mason University.

Notable faculty

Nobel laureates

• James M. Buchanan, Nobel Prize-winning economist (1986)
• Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Prize-winning economist (2002)

Pulitzer Prize winners

• Steven Pearlstein, Pulitzer Prize winner for Commentary in 2008
• Martin Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize winner for his biography of Robert Oppenheimer
• Roger Wilkins, Pulitzer Prize winner for coverage of the Watergate scandal (along with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) while he was working at The Washington Post; retired

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

• William Sims Bainbridge
• Shaul Bakhash, scholar of Persian studies; husband of Haleh Esfandiari
• Mary Catherine Bateson, former Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English; Professor Emerita
• Robert Bausch, novelist
• Rei Berroa, poet
• Andrés Boiarsky
• Courtney Angela Brkic, poet
• Alan Cheuse, novelist
• Arthur W. Chickering
• Jeremy Crampton, cartographer
• Wilfrid Desan
• Bùi Diễm, South Vietnam's Ambassador to the United States
• Robert J. Elder, Jr, Air Force commander
• Marita Golden, novelist
• Gerald L. Gordon
• Joshua Greenberg
• Hugh Gusterson
• Helon Habila
• Deanna Hammond
• Frances V. Harbour
• Hugh Heclo, professor of American politics and winner of John Gaus award
• Carma Hinton, documentary filmmaker, The Gate of Heavenly Peace
• Susan Hirsch, legal and linguistic anthropologist
• Mark N. Katz
• Peter Klappert, poet
• Gary L Kreps
• Thelma Z. Lavine, philosopher
• Suzannah Lessard, writer
• Lawrence W. Levine, historian
• Samuel Robert Lichter, former professor at Princeton University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Yale, and Columbia University
• Peter Mandaville, professor of international affairs and scholar of political Islam
• Nadine Meyer, poet
• Robert Nadeau, English professor
• Eric Pankey, poet
• Roy Rosenzweig
• Richard E. Rubenstein
• Clare Shore
• Susan Shreve
• Richard Norton Smith, presidential historian; former director of five presidential libraries^[1]
• Rod Smith, poet
• Peter Stearns, American historian and former provost
• Lev Vekker, psychologist
• Rex A. Wade, professor of Russian history
• Margaret R. Yocom
• Mary Kay Zuravleff, novelist

Department of Economics

• Peter Boettke
• Donald J. Boudreaux
• Henry N. Butler
• Bryan Caplan
• Tyler Cowen
• Christopher Coyne
• Richard H. Fink, executive vice president of Koch Industries
• Joseph L. Fisher, U.S. Congressman from Virginia
• Jack A. Goldstone
• Wendy Lee Gramm
• Robin Hanson
• Laurence Iannaccone
• Manuel H. Johnson, former vice governor of the Federal Reserve
• Daniel B. Klein
• Arnold Kling
• Don Lavoie
• Peter T. Leeson
• Kevin McCabe
• Maurice McTigue, former Minister for Labor in New Zealand
• James C. Miller III, Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan
• Jennifer Roback Morse
• Russ Roberts, host of EconTalk
• George Selgin
• Alex Tabarrok
• Robert Tollison
• Gordon Tullock, developed the public choice theory
• Richard E. Wagner
• Lawrence H. White
• Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics
• Bart Wilson
• Bruce Yandle, executive director of the Federal Trade Commission

School of Art

• Chawky Frenn

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

• Kevin Avruch, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Conflict Resolution and Professor of Anthropology and Dean of S-CAR
• Marc Gopin, James H. Laue Professor of World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution
• Susan Hirsch, Professor of Conflict Resolution and Anthropology
• Richard E. Rubenstein, University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs

Schar School of Policy and Government

• Zoltan Acs
• David S. Alberts, Director of Research for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
• Kenneth Button
• Thomas M. Davis, former U.S. Congressman from Virginia
• Robert Deitz, former Chief Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency
• Desmond Dinan
• Richard Florida
• William Conrad Gibbons
• Marc Gopin
• Stephen Haseler
• Michael Hayden, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency
• Ellen Laipson, former CEO of The Stimson Center
• Seymour Martin Lipset
• Andrew McCabe, former acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Patrick Mendis, diplomat and expert on Sino-American relations
• Patrick Michaels, climatologist
• Thomas J. Miller, former United States Ambassador to Greece, and Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Michael Morell, former acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Saskia Popescu, infectious disease epidemiologist
• Bill Schneider, Los Angeles Times contributor and former CNN senior political analyst
• Jeremy Shearmur
• Louise Shelley
• Richard Norton Smith
• John N. Warfield

College of Science

• Yakir Aharonov (professor 2006–2008), physicist, known for Aharonov–Bohm effect, winner of National Medal of Science (2009)
• David Albright
• Ken Alibek, colonel in the Soviet Union in charge of biodefense
• Robert Axtell
• Peter J. Denning
• Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein, mathematician and cryptanalyst
• Klaus Fischer, mathematician
• Peter A. Freeman
• Rebecca Goldin, mathematician
• Robert Hazen, Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science; author
• Abul Hussam, inventor of the Sono arsenic filter, for which he received the 2007 sustainability prize awarded by the National Academy of Engineering
• Thomas Lovejoy
• Angela Orebaugh
• Suresh V. Shenoy
• Jagdish Shukla, meteorologist
• Fred Singer
• John P. Snyder, cartographer
• James Trefil, physicist, and author
• Ernst Volgenau, chairman and founder of SRA International
• Edward Wegman, statistician
• Boris Willis

School of Systems Biology

• Valery Soyfer

Donald G. Costello College of Business

• Anthony Sanders, Distinguished Professor of Real Estate Finance
• Ajay Vinze, dean of the School of Business

Antonin Scalia Law School

• Jonathan H. Adler, legal commentator and law professor
• Peter Berkowitz
• David Bernstein
• Lawrence J. Block, federal j
• Frank H. Buckley
• Henry N. Butler, Republican candidate for member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 11th congressional district
• Susan Dudley, Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under President George W. Bush
• Victoria Espinel, United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
• Adrian S. Fisher, lawyer, diplomat, and politician during the 1960s and 1970s
• Sandra Froman, president of the National Rifle Association of America
• Sigrid Fry-Revere, founder and president of Center for Ethical Solutions
• Ernest Gellhorn
• Douglas H. Ginsburg, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Ronald Reagan's nominee to the United States Supreme Court
• Neil Gorsuch, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}
• Brett Kavanaugh, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• William Kovacic, former member of the Federal Trade Commission
• Michael I. Krauss, former Commissioner for Québec's Human Rights Commission
• William H. Lash, former United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce
• James LeMunyon, former United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce
• Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute
• Leonard Liggio, vice president of Atlas Economic Research Foundation
• Deborah Platt Majoras, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission
• Henry Manne
• James C. Miller III, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; Budget Director for President Ronald Reagan
• John Warwick Montgomery^[6]
• Timothy Muris, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission
• Paul F. Nichols, former delegate to the Virginia General Assembly
• Raymond O'Brien
• Daniel D. Polsby, Dean of Law
• Jeremy A. Rabkin
• Steve Ricchetti, served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Clinton administration; counselor to Vice President Joe Biden
• Chuck Robb, former Governor of Virginia; former U.S. Senator
• Kyndra Miller Rotunda, Army JAG officer
• Hans-Bernd Schäfer
• Loren A. Smith, Federal Judge
• Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Michael Uhlmann
• Clay T. Whitehead, former director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy
• Todd Zywicki, former Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission

School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism

• Steve Baumann, Chief Executive of the National Soccer Hall of Fame
• Charley Casserly, General Manager of the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans
• Craig Esherick, former head coach of the Georgetown basketball team

Notable alumni

Corporate/non-profit

• Muna Abu-Sulayman, secretary general and executive director, Alwaleed Philanthropies
• Erden Eruç, president, CEO, Around-n-Over
• Zainab Salbi, president, Women for Women International
• Will Seippel, executive
• Roy Speckhardt, executive Director, American Humanist Association
• Martin Andrew Taylor, former senior executive corporate VP of Windows Live and MSN

Government, politics, and economics

• Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, President of Puntland and former Prime Minister of Somalia
• David Bobzien, member of the Nevada Assembly
• Denise Bode, energy expert, member of President George W. Bush's Energy Transition Advisory Team
• Anna E. Cabral, Treasurer of the United States under President George W. Bush
• Kathleen L. Casey, Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Sandra Cauffman, NASA
• John Cobin, American-born Chilean economist and politician, former U.S. Libertarian Party candidate, and founder of the Galt’s Gulch Libertarian Compound in Chile; known for his involvement in the 2019 Reñaca shooting during the 2019–2021 Chilean protests
• Sean Connaughton, Virginia Secretary of Transportation and former U.S. Maritime Administrator
• Garrison Courtney, Chief Public Affairs of the Drug Enforcement Administration
• Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia
• Bob Deuell, Texas State Senator
• Christine Fox, former acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Michael Frey, member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
• Nancy Garland, member of the Ohio house of representatives
• Juleanna Glover, press secretary to Vice President Dick Cheney
• Bethany Hall-Long, Lieutenant Governor of Delaware
• William D. Hansen, US Deputy Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush
• Charniele Herring, former Majority Leader Virginia House of Delegates^[7]
• Deborah Hersman, National Transportation Safety Board
• Cathy Hudgins, member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
• David Jolly, member of the United States House of Representatives
• Mohammad Khazaee, Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN
• Kaye Kory, Virginia House Delegate
• Sherri Kraham, deputy VP at the Millennium Challenge Corporation
• Nathan Larson, former politician, arrested in Denver, Colorado and faces child kidnapping and child pornography charges
• Patrick Lechleitner, acting Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Mark B. Madsen, Utah State Senator
• Harold T. Martin III, National Security Agency contractor convicted of theft of classified information
• Mike Mazzei, Oklahoma State Senator
• William W. Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana
• John Morlu, Liberian presidential candidate
• Paul F. Nichols, Virginia House Delegate
• Liam O'Grady, United States federal judge
• Nancy Pfotenhauer, adviser to the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign
• David Ramadan, member of the Virginia House of Delegates^[8]
• Steve Ricchetti, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton
• Denise Turner Roth, former Administrator of the GSA
• James M. Scott, Virginia House Delegate
• William P. Winfree, NASA
• Richard L. Young, United States federal judge
• Chris Wood, director of the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorism Center

Literary and media

• Richard Bausch, novelist
• Robert Bausch, novelist
• Stuart Cosgrove, Scottish journalist, broadcaster and television executive
• Sharon Creech, novelist
• Chad Ford, sports journalist and founder of ESPN Insider
• Angie Goff, news anchor, NBC 4 Washington WRC-TV
• Hala Gorani, news anchor, CNN International
• Brian Krebs, journalist
• Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Poet Laureate of Virginia^{[9] [10]}
• J. Michael Martinez, poet
• Nadine Meyer, poet
• Stephen Moore, journalist, policy analyst, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News
• Evan Oakley, poet
• Nancy K. Pearson, poet
• Susan Rook, news anchor, CNN
• Clayton Swisher, journalist, Al Jazeera English
• Rebecca Wee, poet
• Mark Winegardner, author

Sports and entertainment

• Julius Achon, Ugandan distance runner, 800m American collegiate record holder
• Joe Addo, soccer player
• Mark Adickes, football player
• Murielle Ahouré, NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships All-American in the 60-meter dash
• Jorge Andres, anchor and NFL analyst for NBC Universal; former Sportscenter anchor for ESPN
• Negar Assari, artist
• Abdi Bile, Olympic runner
• Justin Bour, baseball player, Miami Marlins
• Brent Brockman, soccer player
• Bill Brown, George Mason baseball coach
• Lamar Butler, basketball player
• Shawn Camp, baseball player, Toronto Blue Jays
• Folarin Campbell, basketball player
• Rebecca Cardon, actress
• Keri Chaconas, basketball player
• Terri Dendy, Olympic track and field athlete
• Jennifer Derevjanik, basketball player
• Ben Dogra, sports agent
• John Driscoll, actor
• Chad Dukes, radio host, WJFK-FM
• Jerry Dunn, basketball coach
• Ryan Ellis, NASCAR driver
• George Evans, basketball player
• Denis Hamlett, soccer coach
• Luke Hancock, former George Mason basketball player; current Louisville basketball player
• Richard Hatch, winner of the first season of Survivor
• Nikki Hornsby, Grammy voting singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, founder of CJP-NHRecords
• Jake Kalish, baseball player
• King Kamali, Iranian bodybuilder
• Archie Kao, actor
• Joelle Khoury, musician (pianist and composer)^[11]
• Sarah Kozer, television personality, appeared on Joe Millionaire
• Jim Larranaga, Mason's head men's basketball coach 1997–2011
• Jai Lewis, basketball player
• Bob Lilley, soccer player and head coach
• Tamir Linhart, soccer player
• Jason Miskiri, former NBA basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets
• Dayton Moore, general manager, senior VP, Kansas City Royals
• Mike Morrison, basketball player
• Paige Moss, actress
• Rob Muzzio, decathlon champion, Olympic athlete
• Anthony Noreiga, soccer player
• Gabe Norwood, Philippine Basketball Association player
• Ryan Pearson, basketball player
• Richard Phillips, Jamaican sprinter; competed in the 110 metres hurdles at the 2004, 2008, and the 2012 Summer Olympics
• Jennifer Pitts, Miss Virginia, Miss Virginia USA
• Mark Pulisic, soccer player
• Charlie Raphael, soccer player
• Rob Rose, former NBA basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers
• Dianna Russini, ESPN anchor
• Kenny Sanders, basketball player
• Rhea Seehorn, actress
• Ritch Shydner, comedian
• Tony Skinn, basketball player
• Tommy Steenberg, ice skater
• Shawn Stiffler, college baseball coach at VCU
• Will Thomas, basketball player
• David Verburg, 400m sprinter; won the gold medal in the 2013 World Championship 4 × 400 m relay
• Alan Webb, American record holder in the mile
• Chris Widger, former MLB baseball player
• Aimee Willard, lacrosse player
• Ricky Wilson, former NBA basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs and the New Jersey Nets
• Carlos Yates, basketball player
• Jesse Young, basketball player; member of the Canada national team that participated in the 1999 and 2003 Pan American Games
• Kate Ziegler, world record distance swimmer

Other

• Ali al-Tamimi, convicted terrorist
• Amir Ansari, venture capitalist
• Anousheh Ansari, space tourist
• Sandy Antunes, astronomer
• Randall C. Berg, Jr., lawyer
• M. Brian Blake, professor
• Mark A. Calabria, Director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute
• Alan M. Davis, engineer and businessman
• Chris DiBona, Google Public Sector Director
• Taylor Edgar, stand-up comic and musician
• Sibel Edmonds, former Federal Bureau of Investigation translator
• Fred E. Foldvary, economist
• Graham Foust, professor and poet
• Steven Horwitz, economist
• Raynard Jackson, Republican political consultant
• Matt Kibbe, President and CEO of FreedomWorks
• Jonathan Klick, professor
• Robert A. Levy, Chairman of the Cato Institute
• Jeb Livingood, professor and writer
• Daniel Mann, lawyer
• George Michael, professor
• Kendrick Moxon, lawyer and Scientologist
• Sareh Nouri, fashion designer
• Angela Orebaugh, cyber security technologist and professor
• Mark Perry, professor
• Brad Pfaff, USDA Wisconsin Farm Service Agency executive director
• David Prychitko, economist
• Jose Rodriguez, political activist
• Stephen Slivinski, economist for the Goldwater Institute
• Victoria Stiles, makeup artist
• Edward Stringham, professor
• Jeffery Taubenberger, virologist
• Deborah Willis, photographer and professor

Notes and References

1. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/smith-bio.html Biography of Richard Norton Smith
2. Web site: Getahun . Hannah . April 30, 2023 . Scalia Law is a haven for conservative SCOTUS justices: NYT . 2023-06-13 . Business Insider . en-US.
3. Web site: George Mason's Scalia Law School is a generous employer for Supreme Court justices, records show . 2023-06-13 . The Week . en.
4. News: Eder . Steve . Becker . Jo . 2023-04-30 . How Scalia Law School Became a Key Friend of the Court . 2023-06-13 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
5. Web site: Antonin Scalia Law School moved up in rankings after it cultivated ties with Supreme Court justices . 2023-06-13 . ABA Journal . en.
6. News: A Flair for Controversy. Rivera. Carla. 11 January 1989. Los Angeles Times. 10 November 2012.
7. Web site: Charniele L. Herring's Speech for the Celebration of the Class of 2020 .
8. Web site: Ramadan . David . David's Story . David Ramadan – official website . 24 May 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120604041149/https://www.davidramadan.com/david-ramadanmeet-daviddavidramadan/davids-story/ . 4 June 2012 .
9. https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/poets/virginia.html Virginia Law and Library of Congress List of Poets Laureate of Virginia
10. http://www.carolynforonda.com/ Official Site of Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda – Poet, Artist, Educator, Poet Laureate of Virginia
11. http://www.brunel.ac.uk/BICMEM/composers/joelle-khoury Joelle Khoury listed as graduate of George Mason University on page at brunel.ac.uk