collageThis page lists notable alumni and faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz; alumni may have attended without graduating. Read on for the university of california santa cruz application deadline, and university of california santa cruz interesting facts.
UC Santa Cruz has produced a number of notable alumni. As you may know, the university is located in Santa Cruz, California and was founded in 1965. The university is known for its unique approach to education, which includes emphasizing hands-on learning, interdisciplinary studies and student-centered instruction.
Perhaps one of the most notable alumni from UC Santa Cruz is comedian and actress Ellen DeGeneres, who graduated in 1977 with a degree in drama. After graduating, she moved to New York City where she began her career as a stand up comedian at The Comedy Store on Sunset Strip. She has gone on to host her own talk show for over 20 years and win multiple Emmy Awards for her role as Dory on “Finding Nemo.”
Another notable alumnus from UC Santa Cruz is Congressman Jared Huffman (D). Huffman graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1986 with a degree in political science before moving to Washington D.C., where he still lives today. He was first elected into office in 2010 and currently serves as representative for California’s 2nd Congressional District.
university of california santa cruz application deadline
University Of California Santa Cruz Notable Alumni
Academia
William Drea Adams – President of Colby College, Waterville, Maine
Michelle Anderson, B.A. 1989 – (born 1967) – President of Brooklyn College, and a scholar on rape law
Stefano Bloch, B.A. 2001 – Author, graffiti artist, and Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Arizona[1]
Hume A Feldman, BA 1984 – Professor and Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Kansas, APS Fellow
Yoav Freund, Ph.D. 1994 – professor of computer science at the University of California San Diego, winner of the Gödel prize
Kristen R. Ghodsee, B.A. 1993 – Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College; winner of 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship
Alexander Gonzalez, Ph.D. 1979 – President of California State University, Sacramento
Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, artist and writer, School of Visual Arts
Victor Davis Hanson, B.A. 1975 – historian, Professor Emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno; Hoover Institution Fellow; 2007 National Humanities Medal recipient
Eva Simone Hayward, Women’s Studies researcher on faculty at University of Arizona[2]
Caren Kaplan, Ph.D. – Professor of American Studies at UC Davis
Steven G. Krantz, B.A – Professor of Mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis; winner of the Chauvenet Prize
Andrew Jolivette; Ph.D. – Professor of Ethnic Studies, senior specialist Native American and Indigenous Studies at University of California, San Diego
Annette Lareau, B.A. 1974 – Professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania
Lisa Lowe, Ph.D. – Professor of American Studies at Yale
Patricia Nelson Limerick – Professor of History at University of Colorado and a leading historian of the American West
Tod Machover – MIT Media Lab
Austin E. Quigley, Ph.D. – Dean of Columbia College of Columbia University
John R. Rickford, B.A. 1971 – Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University and African American Vernacular English or Ebonics expert
Sally Sedgwick, B.A. 1978 – Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at University of Illinois at Chicago
Jeffrey C. Stewart, B.A. 1971 – Professor of Black Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara
Bret Weinstein, B.A. – American biologist and evolutionary theorist
Arts and letters
Will Bagley, BA 1971 – historian of 1800s American West
Michael A. Bellesiles, BA 1975 – author of a book “Arming America: The origins of a National Gun Culture” which won the Bancroft Prize in 2001; the prize was rescinded by Columbia University in 2002 as for having “violated basic norms of scholarship and the high standards expected of Bancroft Prize winners.”
Susie Bright – writer, sex activist and sex therapy focus leader
Gail Carriger, MA 2008 – steampunk author
Maya Chinchilla, BA 2000 – Guatemalan-American poet
Fred Cohen, BA 1980 — Director of the School of Music & Dance, San Jose State University
David Farley- BA 1995 – Author of “An Irreverent Curiosity”, food and travel writer
William Finnegan- BA 1974 – 2016 Pulitzer prize author of “Barbarian Days”, journalist
Laurie Garrett, BA 1975 – Newsday science reporter and author, Pulitzer Prize winner
Philip Kan Gotanda – playwright
Reyna Grande, BA 1999 – author, American Book Award winner
Kira Lynn Harris, MFA 1998 – artist
bell hooks, PhD 1983 – feminist social critic
Miranda July[3] – filmmaker and writer
Lori Kay, BA 1986 – artist, sculptor
Jayne Ann Krentz, BA 1970 – New York Times bestselling author
Katerina Lanfranco, BA 2001 – artist
Deborah Madison, BA 1968 – cookbook author, founding chef of the Greens Restaurant
Steve Martini, BA 1968 – bestselling mysteries author
Lou Mathews, BA 1973 – writer, “Best Book” of 1999 for L.A. Breakdown (L.A. Times)
Omar Musa – award-winning Australian author, poet and rapper
Kent Nagano, BA 1974 – conductor of the Los Angeles Opera and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Jenny Parks – comics artist, fan artist, and scientific illustrator
Larry Polansky, BA – composer
Johanna Poethig, BA 1980 – visual, public and performance artist
Dana Priest, BA 1981 – Washington Post reporter and author; winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting and 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
Tanya Ragir, BA 1976 – artist
Tlaloc Rivas, BA 1995 – theatre director, writer, and professor
Joe Safdie, BA 1975 – poet
Michael Schennum, BA 2000 – photojournalist
Andrea Smith, PhD 2002 – Cherokee activist and author
David Talbot, BA – founder of Salon.com, author, journalist
Mark Teague, BA 1985 – author and illustrator of children’s books
Hector Tobar, BA – Los Angeles Times columnist, author, winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1992
Bernt Wahl, BA 1984, BS 1986 – author and entrepreneur, Fulbright Fellow. November 1985 coined UC Santa Cruz motto “Fiat Slug”
Annie Wells, BA 1981 – photographer, filmmaker, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1997
Lawrence Weschler, 1974 – author
Richard White – historian of American West, Native American history, and environmental history; MacArthur Foundation fellowship, 1995
Daniel James Wolf, BA 1983 – composer
Laurence Yep – author
Business
Jonah Peretti, BS 1996 – founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post
Sage Weil, PhD 2007, founder of Ceph
Susan Wojcicki, MS – CEO of YouTube
Entertainment and broadcasting
Lorin Ashton, aka Bassnectar – free-form electronic music artist and DJ
Jello Biafra[3] – singer and songwriter of the Dead Kennedys
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, BA, filmmaker (V/H/S, Southbound) and guitarist for Link 80
Brannon Braga[3] – award-winning film writer for Star Trek Generations and an executive producer of 24
Bill Carter, BA Politics, Economics – documentary film director and author
Rick Carter, BA, Oscar-winning art director and production designer
John Craigie, BA Mathematics 2002 – folk singer
Dennis Delaney, BA Anthropology 1976 – writer and actor
Brett Dennen – singer, songwriter
Jacob Aaron Estes, BA 1994 – film screenwriter and director
Sven Gamsky, aka Still Woozy BA 2014 – musician, songwriter
Anne Flett-Giordano, BA 1976 – television writer and producer (Kate & Allie, Frasier, Desperate Housewives)
Cary Joji Fukunaga, BA 1999 – Award-winning filmmaker and showrunner (Sin Nombre, True Detective, Beasts of No Nation)
Matthew Gray Gubler,[3] BA – actor (Criminal Minds’) and director
Richard Gunn, BA 1997 – actor (Dark Angel, Granite Flats, and For the Love of Money)
Richard Harris – National Public Radio science reporter
Antony Hegarty – attended in late 1980s – Composer and singer for Antony and the Johnsons, and visual artist
Alice Inoue – former television presenter and author
Ethan Klein, BA English Literature 2009 – YouTube video blogger and satirist known for h3h3Productions
Elissa Knight, BA Theater & English Literature 1997 – voice actress
Victor Krummenacher[3] – bassist for Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom
Gretchen Lieberum – singer, songwriter
David Lowery, BA 1984 – singer and songwriter for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
Camryn Manheim, BA 1984 – actress
Barry Mendel – film producer (Rushmore, Sixth Sense, Munich, Funny People)
Stephen Mirrione, BA – Academy Award-winning film editor
Dacoury Natche, aka DJ Dahi – Grammy nominated Hip-hop producer
Bradley Nowell,[3] singer and songwriter with Sublime
Marti Noxon, BA – TV producer
Joe Palca, PhD 1982 – National Public Radio science reporter
Jack Passion, BA 2006 – competitive beard grower and star of IFC’s Whisker Wars
Stephanie Foo, BA 2008 – Radio producer for This American Life.
Rebecca Romijn[3] – supermodel, actress
Maya Rudolph, BA 1995 – SNL cast member
Andy Samberg,[3] BA – Saturday Night Live cast member
Tim Schafer[3] – game designer for LucasArts and founder of Doublefine Productions
Akiva Schaffer, BA – Saturday Night Live writer, filmmaker
Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, BA 2003 – travel writer, poet, host of IFC’s Young Broke & Beautiful
Jonathan Segel, BA 1985 – composer, multi-instrumentalist for Camper Van Beethoven
Nikki Silva, BA 1973 – one half of The Kitchen Sisters, who are regularly featured on NPR
Julie Snyder, BA 1995 – producer of NPR’s Serial (podcast) and S-Town
Chris Tashima[3] – actor, Academy Award-winning filmmaker
Jesse Thorn, BS – host of NPR’s Bullseye with Jesse Thorn and co-host of Jordan, Jesse, Go!
Rubén Valtierra, BA – keyboardist for “Weird Al” Yankovic
Ally Walker, BS – actress known for roles in Profiler, Sons of Anarchy, and The Protector
Gillian Welch, BA 1990 – singer and songwriter
Rich Wilkes, BA 1988 – writer, filmmaker (Billy Madison, Stoned Age, Beer Money, XXX, Airheads)
Law
Nate Cardozo, BA 2003 – privacy and civil rights attorney, currently managing privacy at WhatsApp
Vince Girdhari Chhabria, BA 1991 – judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Joan E. Donoghue, BA 1978 – judge, International Court of Justice
Ricardo García, BA 1991 – public defender for Los Angeles County
Rachel Goslins, BA 1991 – copyright attorney, Director of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Museum, former Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities
Charles Harder, BA 1991 – entertainment and civil lawyer known for representing President Donald Trump, Melania Trump, and many celebrities.
Ellen Leonida, BA 1993 – defense attorney for Scott Dyleski
Politics and public life
Bettina Aptheker, PhD – leader in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement
Charles Harder, BA, 1991 — personal lawyer to President Donald Trump [7]
Katherine Canavan, BA – former United States Ambassador to the Republic of Botswana and United States Ambassador to Lesotho
Don Lane, former mayor of Santa Cruz, California
John Doolittle, BA 1972 – Member, U.S. House of Representatives, California 4th Congressional District
Ron Gonzales, BA – Mayor of San Jose, California, 1999–2006
Victor Davis Hanson, BA 1975 – Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
James Charles Kopp, BA Biology 1976 – murderer of Buffalo abortion doctor Barnett Slepian in 1998; convicted in 2003 and serving sentence of 25 years to life
John Laird, BA 1972 – California Natural Resources Agency Secretary, former California Assemblyman, and Mayor of Santa Cruz
Azadeh Moaveni, BA – journalist and writer
Huey P. Newton, BA 1974, PhD 1980 – Co-founding member of the Black Panther Party
Aaron Peskin, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member
Drummond Pike, BA 1970 – Tides Foundation founder, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur
Art Torres, BA 1968 – California Democratic Party Chairman, former California State Senator
Science
Richard Bandler, MA 1975[8] – co-creator of neuro-linguistic programming
Joseph DeRisi, BA 1992 – molecular biologist, professor at UC San Francisco, MacArthur Fellow, known for work on SARS and malaria
Alan Dressler, PhD 1976, staff astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, member of the National Academy of Sciences, cosmologist, author
J. Doyne Farmer, PhD 1981 – pioneer in chaos theory, Prediction Company, Santa Fe Institute
Debra Fischer, PhD 1998, Professor of Astronomy at Yale University, planet finder
Yoav Freund, PhD 1993 – computer scientist, professor at University of California, San Diego, inventor of AdaBoost
John Grinder, PhD 1971 – linguist, co-creator of neuro-linguistic programming[9]
Howard Hang, BS 1998 – Professor of Chemistry at Rockefeller University
Steven Hawley, PhD 1977 – astronaut, Professor of Physics at the University of Kansas
Holly Jones, BS – restoration ecologist and conservation biologist, associate professor at Northern Illinois University
Stacy Jupiter, PhD 2003 — Director of the Melanesia Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, MacArthur Fellows Program
Geoffrey Marcy, PhD 1982 – Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkeley, planet finder, and member of the National Academy of Sciences
Lara Mahal, BA 1996 – Professor of Chemistry at New York University
Marc Okrand, BA 1972 – linguist, creator of the Klingon language
Julie Packard, BA 1974, MA 1978 — Founder and executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mark M. Phillips, PhD 1978 – staff astronomer at Las Campanas Observatory, inventor of the Phillips relationship, pioneer in supernova cosmology
Rob Shaw, PhD 1980 – MacArthur Award for work on chaos theory, 1988
Pamela Silver, BA 1974 – Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, first Director of Harvard University Systems Biology Graduate Program, synthetic biologist
Deborah Steinberg, PhD 1973 – biological oceanographer, Antarctic researcher
Kathryn D. Sullivan, BS 1973 – astronaut, science museum CEO (COSI Columbus), Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, NOAA Administrator
Nicholas B. Suntzeff, PhD 1980 – Professor of Astronomy at Texas A&M University; cosmologist; co-founder of High-Z Supernova Search Team, which discovered dark energy
Sage Weil, PhD 2007, founder of Ceph
Sports
Anton Peterlin – soccer player
university of california santa cruz interesting facts
University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) is known for its unique and innovative approach to education. It was founded in 1965, a time when many universities were still segregated by race. UCSC was one of the first universities in the United States to integrate its students, faculty, and staff.
UCSC’s notable alumni include:
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, actress
- Amanda Palmer, musician and author
- Kurt Vonnegut, author
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