List of University of Texas at Arlington people explained

This is a list of notable people affiliated with the University of Texas at Arlington. Since its inception, the university has produced over 200,000 alumni, with approximately 130,000 living in the North Texas region.

Notable UTA alumni

Arts and culture

Acting and drama

• Charles Baker - actor portraying the character Skinny Pete on Breaking Bad^[1]
• Annie Ilonzeh - actress, General Hospital and the short-lived ABC reboot of Charlie's Angels
• Kristi Kang - voice actress affiliated with Funimation
• Lauren Lane - actress, The Nanny
• Lou Diamond Phillips - actor, Golden Globe nominee^[2]
• Morgan Woodward - actor, Golden Boot Award winner for work in Western television and movie genre

Cinema

• Martin Lisius - filmmaker and storm chaser^{[3] [4]}

Literature

• Siddharth Katragadda - writer, filmmaker, and artist
• Craig Lancaster - novelist

Music

• The 440 Alliance - cello rock group, founding members Drew Johnson, Brandon Vanderford, Andrew Walton, Nathan Keefer, and Neil Fong Gilfillan^[5]
• Mitch Grassi - singer, songwriter, YouTube personality with Scott Hoying on Superfruit, and member of the band Pentatonix
• Ray Price - country and western singer, songwriter, guitarist, and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee^[6]
• Gene Summers - singer, songwriter, musician, and international recording star; inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1997

Photography

• Brad Loper - Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer^[7]
• Jennifer Thoreson - contemporary artist^[8]

Business

• Pat Choate - economist, author, and vice-presidential candidate^[9]
• Roland Fryer (BS '98) - economist, youngest tenured African-American professor in Harvard University's history, and Time Magazines 2009 100 List^[10]
• Roger Krone (MS '81 Aerospace Engineering) - CEO of Leidos^[11]
• Kelcy Warren (BS '78 Civil Engineering) - Chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners and 143rd richest American in 2013^{[12] [13]}
• Jim Wilkinson (BBA '93) - Managing Partner, International Business and Finance, Brunswick Group LLC; former Chief of Staff for Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson^[14]

Engineering

• Kalpana Chawla - former NASA astronaut, died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster^[15]
• Wendy Okolo - NASA engineer
• Robert L. Stewart - former NASA astronaut and retired Army brigadier general^[16]

Government and military

• Richard E. Cavazos - first Mexican American four-star general of the United States Army^[17]
• Tommy Franks - US Army General and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command 2000–2003^[18]
• Michael Langley - first black four-star general of the United States Marine Corps^[19]

Politics

• Rodney Anderson (BBA '90) - Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from Grand Prairie
• Cindy Burkett (BA '04 Political Science) - Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from Dallas County
• Les Eaves - Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives since 2015 and businessman from Searcy, Arkansas^[20]
• Kent Grusendorf - Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from Arlington
• Sally Kern - former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives
• Bob McFarland - Republican former member of both houses of the Texas State Legislature from Arlington, 1977–1991
• Hugh Parmer - former Texas politician and 36th Mayor of Fort Worth
• Diane Patrick - Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from Arlington
• Betsy Price - 44th Mayor of Fort Worth^[21]
• Kenneth Sheets (BA '01 Political Science) - Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 107 in Dallas County^[22]
• Steven Wayne Smith - former justice of the Texas Supreme Court^[23]
• Wayne Smith (BS Civil Engineering) - Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives from Harris County^[24]
• Lupe Valdez - Texas' first Hispanic female nominee for governor and Texas' first Hispanic female sheriff^{[25] [26]}
• Royce West - Democratic member of the Texas State Senate^[27]
• Ann Wynia - former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and current president of North Hennepin Community College^[6]

Sports

• Lanny Bassham - 1976 Summer Olympics gold medalist in 50 m rifle^[28]
• Kenny Bernstein - drag racing driver and former NASCAR owner; nicknamed the "King of Speed"^[29]
• Kaleb Canales - basketball coach; first Mexican-American head coach in NBA history
• Michael Choice - professional baseball player, formerly in MLB; 10th overall draft pick by the Oakland Athletics in the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft^[30]
• Bruce Collie - former NFL player^[31]
• Jared Connaughton - former Olympic track athlete for Canada
• Scott Cross - basketball coach, former head and assistant men's basketball coach at UTA; also a former player at UTA
• Roy Dewalt - former Canadian Football League quarterback of the 1980s, mostly with the British Columbia Lions
• Steve Foster - baseball coach and former MLB player for the Cincinnati Reds^[32]
• Jinh Yu Frey - professional mixed martial artist and current Invicta FC Atomweight Champion^[33]
• Takeshi Fujiwara - Olympic track athlete for Japan and previously El Salvador^[34]
• Dillon Gee - former MLB player^[35]
• Kevin Hervey - professional basketball player
• Trey Hillman - baseball coach; Manager of the Kansas City Royals 2008–2010^[36]
• John Lackey - former MLB player and three-time World Series champion^[36]
• Darryl Lewis - former NFL player
• Mark Lowe - professional baseball player, formerly in MLB^[37]
• Tim McKyer - former NFL player and three-time Super Bowl champion^[38]
• Adam Moore - professional baseball player, formerly in MLB^[39]
• Cliff Odom - former NFL football player^[6]
• Daniel Ortmeier - former MLB player for the San Francisco Giants^[40]
• Dave Owen - former MLB player^[41]
• Hunter Pence - former MLB player and two-time World Series champion^[36]
• Mike Rhyner - founder of Sports Radio 1310AM The Ticket in Dallas
• Ryan Roberts - former MLB player^[42]
• Douglas Russell - 1968 Summer Olympics swimming gold medalist in 100 m butterfly and 4 × 100 m medley relay^[43]
• Austen Smith - 2024 Summer Olympics silver medalist in mixed skeet shooting and bronze medalist in women's skeet shooting^[44]

Notable faculty and staff

• Dereje Agonafer - Mechanical Engineering Professor; first home grown member of National Academy of Engineering
• Ishfaq Ahmad - professor of computer science and engineering, IEEE Fellow, and notable researcher in high-performance computing and video coding
• Dale A. Anderson - professor of aerospace engineering; former Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies
• Michael P. Buckley - Director of the Property Repositioning Program^[45]
• Mo-Shing Chen - Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering; founder and Director of the Energy Systems Research Center, 1968–2003
• Ramez Elmasri - Associate Chair, Computer Science and Engineering Department; died suddenly on May 14, 2022; best known for research that resulted in US Patent 5,440,730, Time Index Access Structure for Temporal Databases Having Concurrent Multiple Versions, with G. Wuu Bellcore, 1995, and related research
• George Fix - mathematician who collaborated on several seminal papers and books in the field of finite element method
• José Ángel Gutiérrez - political science professor, lawyer, and founding member and past president of the La Raza Unida Party
• Susan Hekman - political science professor and director of the graduate humanities program
• Catheleen Jordan - professor of social work
• Charles T. McDowell - Professor Emeritus and former director of the Center for Post-Soviet and Eastern European Studies
• Nils O Myklestad - professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; an authority on mechanical vibration
• David R Nygren - Presidential Distinguished Professor; experimental particle physicist; member of the National Academy of Sciences; inventor of the Time Projection Chamber; recipient of the 2018 Marie Curie award of the IEEE
• Stanley Palmer - professor of history; scholar of British history; member of the UT Arlington Academy of Distinguished Teachers (1996)
• Vasant K. Prabhu - electrical engineering professor; IEEE Life Fellow; inventor of communication system designs
• K. R. Rao - electrical engineering professor; IEEE Fellow; inventor of discrete cosine transform
• Allan Saxe - political science professor, author, philanthropist

External links

• The University of Texas at Arlington
  • University overview
  • University history
• UTAMavericks - fan site
• College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni
• The University of Texas at Arlington Alumni Relations

Notes and References

1. Web site: Charles Baker. IMDb.
2. Web site: Our Alumni Make History. Our Alumni Make History - The University of Texas at Arlington.
3. Web site: Weather is Business for Alumnus Martin Lisius . 2023-12-28 . UTArlington - The University of Texas at Arlington Magazine . en-US.
4. Web site: Notable Alumni . 2024-01-16 . Notable Alumni - Communication - The University of Texas at Arlington . en.
5. Web site: Student Band Reaches Reality TV Realm. https://archive.today/20120328050534/http://www.theshorthorn.com/index.php/news/archives/3483-student-band-reaches-reality-tv-realm . dead . March 28, 2012.
6. Web site: In good company. https://web.archive.org/web/20120319060700/http://www.uta.edu/publications/utamagazine/spring_2006/stories.php?id=431 . dead . March 19, 2012.
7. Web site: Pulitzer lifts alumni to the pinnacle of photography profession. https://web.archive.org/web/20141025223532/http://www.uta.edu/publications/utamagazine/fall_2006/stories.php?id=399&section=Forethought . dead . October 25, 2014.
8. Web site: Alumni US The University of Texas at Arlington (2001). alumnius.net. en. 2017-08-16.
9. Web site: Pat Choate, Celebrated Economist, Author and Intellectual Property Expert, Joins AIPR Board of Directors. https://web.archive.org/web/20091115162025/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2625674.htm. dead. November 15, 2009. PRWeb.
10. Web site: Roland Fryer - The 2009 TIME 100 - TIME. May 3, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090503142131/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893209_1893465,00.html. 2009-05-03.
11. Web site: BorgWarner Appoints Roger A. Krone to Board of Directors. www.prnewswire.com.
12. Web site: Energy Transfer. Energy Transfer.
13. News: Kelcy Warren. Forbes.
14. Web site: UTA Distinguished Alumni 2009.
15. Web site: Astronaut Biography: Kalpana Chawla . . 2010-02-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20030117104044/http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/bio_chawla.html . 2003-01-17 . dead .
16. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/stewart-rl.html Robert L. Stewart Biographical Data
17. http://www.armyrotc.uta.edu/Hall-of-Honor/Hall-of-Honor-Bio-Cavazos,Richard.doc Richard Cavazos Hall of Honor
18. http://www.uta.edu/public-affairs/pressreleases/page.php?id=1713 UT ARLINGTON GRADUATION CELEBRATION TO FEATURE ALUMNUS TOMMY FRANKS
19. Web site: Stracqualursi . Veronica . 2022-08-06 . Lt. Gen. Michael Langley becomes Marines' first Black four-star general CNN Politics . 2023-02-25 . CNN . en.
20. Web site: Leslie Dale Eaves. intelius.com. April 3, 2015.
21. Web site: Mayor's Office. www.fortworthtexas.gov.
22. News: State Rep. Kenneth Sheets District 107 (R-Dallas). The Texas Tribune. March 21, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140323055237/http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kenneth-sheets/#ui-tabs-1. March 23, 2014. dead.
23. Web site: State Bar of Texas: Steven Wayne Smith. texasbar.com. December 23, 2009.
24. Web site: Wayne Smith's Biography . votesmart.org . March 26, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130602070909/http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/50030/wayne-smith . June 2, 2013 .
25. Web site: Texas' first Hispanic female sheriff enters governor's race - Houston Chronicle . www.houstonchronicle.com . 25 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171206225643/http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/texas/article/Texas-first-Hispanic-female-sheriff-enters-12409312.php . 6 December 2017 . dead.
26. Web site: Lupe Valdez to become first LGBTQ and Latina nominee for Texas governor. NBC News.
27. Web site: Where are they now?: Royce West (1974-75).
28. http://www.armyrotc.uta.edu/Hall-of-Honor/bassham,lanny%20bio.doc Lanny Bassham Hall of Honor
29. Web site: Not afraid to take a risk: Kenny Bernstein, UTA Magazine Online, Fall 2005.
30. Web site: Excellent Choice: A's draft college slugger.
31. Web site: Bruce Collie Stats, News and Video - T. NFL.com.
32. Web site: Steve Foster Stats. Baseball-Reference.com.
33. Web site: Jinh Yu Frey – Invicta Fighting Championships.
34. Web site: Player Bio: Takeshi Fujiwara - UT-Arlington Official Athletic Site.
35. Web site: Dillon Gee UTA Profile . 2010-09-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110727234736/http://www.utamavs.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/gee_dillon00.html . 2011-07-27 . dead .
36. Web site: MavWire - Department of University Communications - The University of Texas at Arlington. www.uta.edu.
37. Web site: Mark Lowe UTA Profile.
38. Web site: NFL Players | Past & Current NFL Players. NFL.com.
39. Web site: Adam Moore UTA Profile.
40. Web site: Daniel Ortmeier Stats, Fantasy & News. MLB.com.
41. Web site: Dave Owen Stats. Baseball-Reference.com.
42. Web site: Ryan Roberts UTA profile.
43. Web site: Strokes of genius: UT Arlington Magazine. www.uta.edu.
44. Web site: Austen Smith - Women's Skeet.
45. Web site: School of Architecture. School of Architecture - The University of Texas at Arlington.