List of Brown University people

Academia

• Jasper Adams (A.B. 1815) – President of the College of Charleston, and Hobart College^[1]
• Anthony Aguirre (Sc.B. 1995) – theoretical physicist; winner of the inaugural Buchalter Cosmology Prize^[2]
• Linda Martín Alcoff (PhD 1987) – Professor of Philosophy, Hunter College
• Margaret L. Anderson (Ph.D. 1971) – Professor Emerita of History, UC Berkeley^[3]
• James Burrill Angell (A.B. 1849) – longest-serving President of the University of Michigan (1871–1909)
• Thomas Angell (1862) – Free Will Baptist preacher, professor at York University
• Clarence Edwin Ayres (A.B. 1912; M.A. 1914) – economist; leading proponent of Institutional economics^[4]
• Rufus Babcock (1821) – 2nd President of Colby College, 1833–1836
• Jacques Bailly (A.B. 1988) – classicist at the University of Vermont; National Spelling Bee Official Pronouncer
• Malcolm Baker (A.B. 1992) – Robert G. Kirby Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School^[5]
• Mark Bear (Ph.D., 1984) – Picower Professor of Neuroscience, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT^[6]
• Peter Bearman (A.B. 1978) – Jonathan R. Cole Professor of the Social Sciences, Columbia University^[7]
• Aaron T. Beck (1942) – "father of cognitive behavior therapy"; founder, Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania; winner of the Lasker Award
• Samuel Belkin (Ph.D. 1935) – President, Yeshiva University
• Ravi V. Bellamkonda (Ph.D. 1994) – Dean, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University^[8]
• Olivier Berggruen (A.B. 1986) – art historian and curator
• Lee Eliot Berk (A.B 1964) – president and namesake, Berklee College of Music
• Sangeeta N. Bhatia – John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT^[9]
• Sarah Bolton (Sc.B. 1988) – physicist, president of the College of Wooster, former dean of the college at Williams College
• Edgar S. Brightman – philosopher, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s advisor at Boston University
• Marianne Bronner (Sc.B. 1975) – Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology CalTECH^[10]
• Samuel W. Buell (A.B.) – Bernard M. Fishman Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law^[11]
• Stephen L. Buchwald (Sc.B. 1977) – Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[12]
• Hermon Carey Bumpus (Ph.B.) – 5th president of Tufts University, 1915–1919
• Walter Burse (1920) – President of Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts
• Dame Frances Cairncross (M.A., 1966) – Rector, Exeter College, University of Oxford^[13]
• Andrew Cayton (Ph.D, 1981) – Warner Woodring Chair in Early American History, The Ohio State University; University Distinguished Professor of History, Miami University
• Zechariah Chafee (A.B. 1907) – University Professor of Law, Harvard University^[14]
• Gordon Keith Chalmers (A.B., 1925) – Rhodes Scholar, President of Kenyon College, 1937–1956
• Jeremiah Chaplin (1799) – founder and first President of Colby College, 1817–1833
• Oren B. Cheney (1835–36) – Baptist preacher, abolitionist, founder and president of Bates College
• Herman Chernoff (PhD, 1948) – Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at MIT and of Statistics at Harvard University
• Barbara Chernow (A.B., Economics) – Senior Vice President for Administration at Stony Brook University
• Aram Chobanian – President, Boston University(2003–2005)
• Richard Cohn – Battell Professor of Music Theory, Yale University
• William E. Cooper – President, University of Richmond
• Robert A. Corrigan (A.B.) – President, San Francisco State University
• Christina Crosby (Ph.D. 1982) – Professor of English, Wesleyan University
• Douglas W. Diamond (A.B.) – Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Michael Dickinson (Sc. B. 1984) – Zarem Professor of Bioengineering and Biology California Institute of Technology, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Daniel Eisenberg (M.A., 1968; Ph.D., 1971) – Distinguished Research Professor of Spanish at Florida State University
• Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (Sc.B.) Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor, Stanford University
• Romeo Elton (1817–1889) – professor of Latin and Greek Languages and trustee at Brown University; namesake of an endowed chair
• Stanley Falkow – father of microbiology and professor at Stanford Medical School, winner of the Lasker Award, only second to the Nobel Prize
• Heidi Li Feldman (A.B. 1986) – law professor
• Ruth Feldstein (PhD 1996) – Professor of History, Rutgers University^[15]
• Willbur Fisk (A.B. 1815) – Methodist minister; first president of Wesleyan University^[16]
• James Forman Jr. (A.B. 1988) – Professor of Law, Yale Law School^[17]; Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
• Daniel Fischel – Dean, University of Chicago Law School
• Henry Simmons Frieze (1841) – President, University of Michigan
• Ester Fuchs (M.A.) – Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science, Columbia University^[18]
• William Fulton (B.A. 1961) – algebraic geometer, former Professor of Mathematics at Brown University, winner of the Leroy P. Steele Prize
• Alexander R. Galloway (A.B., 1996) – Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
• Paul Garabedian (A.B. 1946) – Director of the Division of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU^[19]
• Edwin Gaustad (PhD 1951) – noted historian of American religious history at the University of California, Riverside^[20]
• Gary Gerstle (A.B.) – Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge^[21]
• Brie Gertler (PhD 1997) – Commonwealth Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia
• John Wesley Gilbert (A.B. 1888, A.M. 1891) – first African American to receive an A.M. from Brown, first African American archaeologist^[22]
• Frederic Poole Gorham (A.M. 1894) – founder of bacteriological studies program, President of the American Society for Microbiology (1911)
• John Greco (Ph.D., 1989) – Leonard and Elizabeth Eslick Chair in Philosophy at Saint Louis University
• Roland Greene (AB 1979) – Mark Pigott KBE Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Stanford University^[23]
• Kent Greenfield (A.B. 1984) – Professor of Law Boston College Law School^[24]
• Thomas D. Griffith (A.B.) – John B. Milliken Professor of Taxation, USC Gould School of Law^[25]
• Edward Guiliano – New York Institute of Technology President^[26]
• John Guttag (A.B. 1971) – chair of MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department (1999–2004)
• John Haltiwanger (Sc.B. 1977) – economist, University of Maryland, College Park
• Janice Hammond (Sc.B.) – Jesse Philips Professor of Manufacturing at Harvard Business School^[27]
• Thomas Hassan – former principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, first gentleman of New Hampshire
• John Hattendorf (A.M. 1971) – Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History, Naval War College
• Jerry A. Hausman (A.B. 1968) – John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology^[28]
• Dagmar Herzog (PhD) – Distinguished Professor of History, Graduate Center, CUNY^[29]
• Marianne Hirsch (AB 1970; PhD 1970) – William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University^[23][30]
• John Hope (1894) – first African American president of Morehouse College and co-founder of the Niagara Movement, which became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Tracey Holloway, professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Maryanne Cline Horowitz (A.B.) – historian, Occidental College^[31]
• Arthur L. Horwich (A.B., 1972 M.D., 1975 summa cum laude) – biologist, Lasker Award (2011) winner, and Eugene Higgins Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine
• Ayanna Howard (Sc.B. '93) – roboticist; Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Endowed Chair in Bioengineering in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology; MIT Technology Review Top 100 Innovators under 35^[32]
• Charles Ingrao (Ph.D. 1974) – Professor Emeritus of History, Purdue University
• Matthew Frye Jacobson (PhD 1992) – William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies & History, Yale University^[33]
• Judith Jacobson (1964) – co-founder of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
• Bruce J. Katz (A.B.) – vice president, Brookings Institution
• Brian Keating (Ph.D 2000) – astrophysicist^[2]
• Michael Keane (Ph.D 1989) – Nuffield Professor of Economics, University of Oxford
• JacSue Kehoe (PhD 1961) – former instructor at Brown University, renowned neuroscience lecturer and researcher at the CNRS
• David Kelley (A.B., A.M.) – former professor of philosophy; founder of The Atlas Society
• Sean Dorrance Kelly (Sc.B., M.S.) – Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University
• David Kennedy (A.B. 1976) – Vice President of International Studies and professor of International Relations at Brown University
• Jim Yong Kim (1981) – President, Dartmouth College, Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS department, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Michael Kimmel (M.A. 1974) – Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Stony Brook University
• Edward Kleinbard (A.B., M.A. 1973) – Theodore Johnson Professor of Law and Business, USC Gould School of Law^[34]
• Eric Klinenberg (AB 1983) – sociologist, professor at New York University
• Carolyn Korsmeyer (Ph.D. 1972) – philosopher of aesthetics; Research Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo^[35]
• Larry Kramer (AB 1980) – president, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; former Dean of Stanford Law School
• Jennifer Lackey (PhD 2000) – Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University^[36]
• Keith Lehrer (PhD 1960) – Regents' Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, University of Arizona^[37]
• Joan Leitzel (M.A. 1961) – President Emerita, University of New Hampshire^[38]
• Derrick Henry Lehmer (PhD 1930) – University of California, Berkeley mathematician^[39]
• Jeffrey Lesser (A.B. 1982; M.A. 1984) – Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Chair of History, Emory University^[40]
• Walter Liedtke (AM 1969) – curator of European paintings Metropolitan Museum of Art^[41]
• David Lobell (Sc.B. 2000) – Professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University; MacArthur Fellow^[42]
• Julie Beth Lovins (AB 1968) – computational linguist who developed the first stemming algorithm for word matching
• Luther Luedtke (PhD 1971) – former President of California Lutheran University and current President and CEO of Education Development Center
• James A. MacAlister (1856) – first president of Drexel University^[43]
• Bruce H. Mann – (Harvard Law School legal scholar)^[44]

Jonathan Maxcy

• Jonathan Maxcy (A.B. 1787) – 2nd President of Brown University; first president of the University of South Carolina and Baptist minister
• David Maxwell (A.M. 1968) – President, Drake University
• Brendan McConville (PhD 1992) – Professor of History, Boston University^[45]
• Alexander Meiklejohn (1893) – philosopher; free-speech advocate; dean of Brown University (1901–1913); president of Amherst College
• Jessica Meir – Harvard professor, astronaut
• Craig C. Mello,(Sc. B. 1982) – Nobel laureate (2006, Physiology or Medicine) – professor University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Anne K. Mellor (A.B. 1963) – Distinguished Research Professor of English UCLA^[46]
• Ruth Milkman (A.B. 1975) – Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY; former president, American Sociological Association^[47]
• Kenneth R. Miller (Sc. B. 1970) – Professor of Biology at Brown University
• Lloyd B. Minor (Sc.B. 1979; M.D. 1982) – Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine; former provost, Johns Hopkins University^[48]
• Richard L. Morrill (A.B. 1961) – President, University of Richmond (1988–1998), Centre College (1982–1988), Salem College (1979–1982)
• Samuel M. Nabrit (B.A. Morehouse College, Ph.D. 1932) – first African American to receive doctorate degree from Brown University; first African American trustee at Brown University; first African American appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
• Srihari S. Naidu (Sc.B. 1993; MD, 1997) – physician, Associate Professor of Medicine, New York Medical College^[49]
• Anna Nagurney (A.B. 1977, Sc. B. 1977, Sc. M. 1980, Ph.D. 1983) – John F. Smith Memorial Professor and Director – Virtual Center for Supernetworks, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Jay Newman (M.A.) – Professor of Philosophy at York University; Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
• Peter Norvig (Sc. B. 1978) – director of research at Google Inc.
• Eliphalet Nott (M.A. 1795) – President of Union College, 1805–1866; longest serving college president in American history^[50]
• Inman E. Page (AB 1877, AM 1880) – Together with George W. Milford the first African-American student, president of four colleges: the Lincoln Institute, Langston University, Western University, and Roger Williams University
• Lynn Pasquerella (Ph.D. 1985) – President, Mount Holyoke College
• Peter Pitegoff (A.B. 1975) – Dean and Professor of Law, University of Maine School of Law
• Imam Prasodjo (Ph.D. 1997) - professor, University of Indonesia^[51]
• Willard Preston (A.B. 1806) – 4th President of the University of Vermont^[52]
• Guruswami Ravichandran (PhD 1987) – John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science at CalTECH^[53]
• Jehuda Reinharz (Ph.D. 1972) – President, Brandeis University
• Kenneth Alan "Ken" Ribet (A.B. and A.M. 1969) – professor of mathematics at U.C.-Berkeley, contributor to the proof of Fermat's last theorem
• Chase F. Robinson (A.B.) – President and Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, CUNY
• Jennifer Richeson (1994) – psychologist, Macarthur fellowship recipient
• Paul Ridker (MD 1981) – cardiologist and medical researcher and the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard University; on staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts; included in TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people of 2004; previously named by TIME and CNN as one of "America's Best in Science and Medicine"
• Gavriel David Rosenfeld (1989) – Professor of History and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Judaic Studies at Fairfield University
• Robert Rynasiewicz (Sc.B. 1974) – Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University^[54]
• David Schmittlein (A.B. 1977) – Dean, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Daniel R. Schwarz (PhD 1968) – Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University^[55]
• Patrick Sharkey (A.B. 2000) – Professor of Sociology, NYU^[56]
• Kaja Silverman (PhD 1977) – Keith L. Sachs W'67 and Katherine Stein Sachs CW'69 Professor of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania^[57]
• Michael Silverstein – Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, of Linguistics, and of Psychology at the University of Chicago, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Steven H. Simon (Sc.B.) – theoretical physicist, University of Oxford^[58]
• Richard Slotkin (PhD) – Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Wesleyan University
• Timothy D. Snyder – Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale University
• Jeffrey Stout (A.B. 1972) – Professor of Religion, Princeton University^[59]
• Richard Solomon (A.B. 1940, A.M. 1942, Ph.D. 1947) – psychologist, author of the opponent-process theory of emotion
• David Summers (art historian)
• James Tallmadge, Jr. (1798) – President of New York University (1830–1846); U.S. Congressman, New York

Mary Emma Woolley

• Arthur Taylor – President, Muhlenberg College (1992–2002), President, CBS (1972–1976)
• Richard Taylor (PhD 1959) – philosopher; subject of David Foster Wallace's prize-winning undergraduate thesis, later reprinted as Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (along with essays by Taylor)^[60][61]
• Rick Trainor (A.B.) – Principal of King's College London
• William Freeman Twaddell – professor during 50s and 60s
• Adam Ulam – Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University, one of the world's foremost authorities on Russia and the Soviet Union
• Ebonya Washington (A.B. 1995) – professor of Economics at Yale University
• Francis Wayland III (A.B. 1846) – Dean of Yale Law School, 1973–1903^[62]
• Geoffrey Wawro (A.B. 1983) – military historian
• Yang Wei (Ph.D. 1985) – President, Zhejiang University
• Nils Yngve Wessell (A.M. 1935) – President, Tufts University
• Benjamin Ide Wheeler (1875) – Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University; President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919
• Beniah Longley Whitman – President of Colby College and later President of George Washington University
• Mary Emma Woolley (A.B. 1894, A.M 1895) – first American woman to serve as delegate to a major international conference; president of Mount Holyoke College
• Maria Zuber – first female department head at MIT (planetary and geological sciences) and NASA planning advisor
• Steven Zwicker (M.A. 1966, Ph.D. 1969) – Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

Science, technology and innovation

Lillian Moller Gilbreth

• Willis Adcock (Ph.D. 1948) — chemist, professor of electrical engineering, grew silicon boules for construction of the first silicon transistor at Texas Instruments
• Katherine L. Adams (A.B. 1986) – General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal and Global Security, Apple Inc.^[63]
• Seth Berkley (Sc. B., MD) – President, CEO and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
• Brian Binnie (Sc. B. 1975, Sc. M. 1976) – test pilot, privately funded experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne
• John Seely Brown (A.B. 1962) – inventor of spellcheck
• John H. Crawford (1975) – chief architect, Intel386 and Intel486 microprocessors; co-managed the development of the Pentium microprocessor; Intel Fellow, Enterprise Platforms Group
• James B. Garvin (Sc. B. 1978, Sc. M. 1981, Ph.D. 1984) – Chief Scientist, NASA Mars and lunar exploration programs
• Lillian Moller Gilbreth (Ph.D. 1915) – one of the first working female engineers; arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist; mother of twelve children as described by the book Cheaper by the Dozen

Thomas O. Paine

• Morton Gurtin (Ph.D. 1961) – Timoshenko Medal-winning mechanical engineer and mathematical physicist
• Andy Hertzfeld (Sc. B. 1975) – key member of original Apple Macintosh development team; one of the primary software architects of the classic Mac OS
• Eliot Horowitz – founder and CTO of MongoDB
• Wesley Huntress – president, Planetary Society
• William Williams Keen (1859) – first U.S. brain surgeon
• Dara Khosrowshahi (1991) – CEO of Uber^[64]
• Amy Leventer, marine biologist, micropaleontologist, Antarctic researcher
• David J. Lipman – director, National Center for Biotechnology Information
• Thomas O. Paine (A.B. 1942) – third NASA Administrator, oversaw first seven Apollo manned missions
• Robert G. Parr (1942) – author of Density-Functional Theory of Atoms and Molecules
• Randy Pausch (Sc.B. 1982) – Professor of Computer Science and co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University; lecturer and best-selling writer, The Last Lecture
• Erin Pettit (Sc.B. 1994) – glaciologist, Antarctic researcher
• Marion Elizabeth Stark (A.B. 1916, A.M. 1979) – one of the first female American mathematics professors
• Ellen Stofan (Ph.D. 1989) – John and Adrienne Mars Director, National Air and Space Museum^[65][66]
• Gordon Kidd Teal (Ph.D. 1931) – inventor of the silicon transistor
• John Wilder Tukey (Sc. B. 1936, Sc. M. 1937) – co-developed the Cooley–Tukey fast Fourier transform algorithm; coined the terms bit, byte, software and cepstrum
• Bob Wallace – ninth Microsoft employee, inventor of the term shareware
• George Wallerstein (Sc.B. 1951) – astronomer, winner of the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
• Maia Weinstock – Deputy Editor of MIT News; feminist
• Frank E. Winsor (Sc.B. 1892, A.M. 1896, Sc.D. 1929) – civil engineer; chief engineer for the Quabbin Reservoir and Scituate Reservoir projects; Brown University trustee

Government, law and public policy

Governors

Aaron Stough

Charles Evans Hughes

William L. Marcy

• Philip Allen (A.B. 1803) – U.S. Senator, Rhode Island (1853–1859), Governor of Rhode Island (1851–1853)^[67]
• Henry B. Anthony (A.B. 1833) – U.S. Senator, R-Rhode Island (1859–1884), President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Governor of Rhode Island (1849–1851)^[68]
• Donald Carcieri (A.B. 1965) – Governor of Rhode Island–R (2003–2011); former CEO of Cookson America^[69]
• Lincoln Chafee (1975) – Governor of Rhode Island^[70]
• Samuel Cony (1829) – Governor of Maine (1864–1867)^[71]
• Elisha Dyer – Governor of Rhode Island (1857–1859)^[72]
• Elisha Dyer, Jr. – Governor of Rhode Island (1897–1900)^[73]
• James Fenner (A.B. 1789) – Governor of Rhode Island (1807–1811; 1824–1831; 1843–1845)^[74]
• Theodore Francis Green (1887) – Governor of Rhode Island (1933–1936); U.S. Senator, D–Rhode Island (1937–1961)^[75]
• Maggie Hassan – Governor of New Hampshire (2013–2017); U.S. Senator, D–New Hampshire (2017–)^[76]
• Charles Evans Hughes (A.B. 1881) – Governor of New York (1907–1910)^[77]
• Charles Jackson – Governor of Rhode Island (1845–46)^[78]
• Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (Sc.B. 1992) – Governor of Louisiana–R (2008–2016)^[79]
• Otto Kerner, Jr. (1930) – Governor of Illinois – (1961–1968)^[80]
• William L. Marcy (A.B. 1808) – Justice of New York State Supreme Court (1829); Governor of New York (1833–1839); U.S. Secretary of War (1845–1849); U.S. Senator from New York; U.S. Secretary of State (1853–1857)^[81]
• Jack A. Markell (1982) – Governor of Delaware–D (2009–)^[82]
• Marcus Morton (A.B. 1804, A.M 1807) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1817–1821), Governor of Massachusetts (1825, 1840–1844)^[83]
• Pendleton Murrah (1848) – Governor of Texas during the American Civil War (1863–1865)^[84]
• Philip W. Noel (1954) – former Governor of Rhode Island^[85]
• Robert E. Quinn (1915) – Governor of Rhode Island and Judge for the Rhode Island Superior Court^[86]
• Edward C. Stokes (1883) – Governor of New Jersey (1905–1908)^[87]
• John Milton Thayer (1841) – Governor of Wyoming Territory and Governor of Nebraska^[88]
• William D. Williamson (1804) – second Governor of the U.S. state of Maine and one of the first congressmen from Maine in the United States House of Representatives^[89]

Legislators

Framer of the founding documents of the United States of America

• Stephen Hopkins – First Chancellor of Brown University; Continental Congress delegate; signatory to the Declaration of Independence; introduced slavery ban to Rhode Island in 1774

United States senators

Henry B. Anthony

Theodore Foster

• Philip Allen (A.B. 1803) – U.S. Senator, Rhode Island (1853–1859), Governor of Rhode Island (1851–1853)^[67]
• Henry B. Anthony (A.B. 1833) – U.S. Senator, R-Rhode Island (1859–1884), President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Governor of Rhode Island (1849–1851)^[68]
• Samuel G. Arnold (A.B. 1841) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[90]
• James Burrill, Jr. (A.B. 1788) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[91]
• Lincoln Chafee (A.B. 1975) – U.S. Senator, R-Rhode Island; Governor of Rhode Island (2011–2015)^[92]
• John Hopkins Clarke (A.B. 1809) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[93]
• Nathan F. Dixon I (A.B. 1799) – U.S. Senator, Rhode Island^[94]
• Nathan F. Dixon III (A.B. 1869) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[95]
• James Fenner (A.B. 1789) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[96]
• Dwight Foster (A.B. 1774) – United States Senator from Massachusetts^[97]
• Lafayette S. Foster (A.B. 1828) – U.S. Senator, R-Connecticut (1855–1867), President pro tempore of the Senate (1865–1867)^[98]
• Theodore Foster (A.B. 1770) – United States Senator from Rhode Island^[99]
• John Brown Francis (A.B. 1808) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[100]
• Theodore F. Green (A.B. 1887) – U.S. Senator, D- Rhode Island (1937–1961)^[101]
• Maggie Hassan (A.B. 1980) – U.S. Senator, D-New Hampshire^[102]
• Nathaniel P. Hill (A.B. 1856) – U.S. Senator, R-Colorado (1879–1885)^[103]
• John Holmes (A.B. 1796) – U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, one of the two first Senators from Maine^[104]

Lafayette S. Foster

• Jeremiah B. Howell (A.B. 1789) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[105]
• William Hunter (A.B. 1791) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[106]
• Edward L. Leahy (A.B. ???) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[107]
• Henry F. Lippitt (A.B. 1878) – U.S. Senator from Rhode Island^[108]
• William L. Marcy (A.B. 1808) – U.S. Senator from New York^[109]
• John Ruggles (A.B. 1813) – U.S. Senator from Maine^[110]
• Frederic M. Sackett (1890) – U.S. Senator, R-Kentucky (1924–1930), U.S. ambassador to Germany (1930–1933)^[111]
• Jared W. Williams (A.B. 1818) – U.S. Senator from New Hampshire^[112]

Members of the United States House of Representatives

• John Baldwin (A.B. 1797) – U.S. Congressman, Connecticut (1825–1829)^[113]
• Tristam Burges (A.B. 1796) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1825–1835)^[114]
• David Cicilline (A.B. 1983) – first openly gay mayor of state capital, Providence, Rhode Island; U.S. Representative for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district, 2011–present.^[115]
• Howard A. Coffin (1901) – U.S. Congressman, R-Michigan^[116]
• Samuel S. Cox (1846) – U.S. Congressman, D-Ohio, D-New York, U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire^[117]

Dan Maffei

• Samuel L. Crocker (1822) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts^[118]
• Job Durfee (A.B. 1813) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1821–1825)^[119]
• Samuel Eddy (1787) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1819–1825), Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (1827–1835)^[120]
• James Ervin (1797) U.S. Congressman, R-South Carolina (1817–1821)^[121]
• Horace Everett (A.B. 1797) – U.S. Congressman, Vermont (1829–1843)^[122]
• Dwight Foster (A.B. 1774) – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 2nd and 4th districts^[97]
• Julian Hartridge (1848) – U.S. Congressman, D-Georgia (1875–1879)^[123]
• Nathaniel Hazard (1792) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1819–1820)^[124]
• Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (Sc.B. 1992) – U.S. Congressman, R-Louisiana 1st Congressional District (2004–2008)^[125]
• Oscar Lapham (1864) – U.S. Congressman, D-Rhode Island, 1st Congressional District^[126]
• Dan Maffei (1990) – U.S. Congressman, D-New York, 25th Congressional District^[127]
• James Brown Mason (A.B. 1791) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1815–1819)^[128]
• Marcus Morton (A.B. 1804, A.M 1807) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1817–1821), Governor of Massachusetts (1825, 1840–1844)^[129]
• John J. O'Connor (1906) – U.S. Congressman, D-New York (1923–1939)^[130]
• Dutee Jerauld Pearce (A.B. 1808) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1825–1837)^[131]
• Henry Kirke Porter (1860) – U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania (1903–1905)^[132]
• Zabdiel Sampson (1803) – U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts (1817–1820)^[133]
• William P. Sheffield, II – U.S. Congressman, R-Rhode Island (1909–1911)^[134]
• Solomon Sibley (1794) – first United States Attorney for the Michigan Territory; territorial Delegate to Congress^[135]
• Edward L. Sittler, Jr. (1930) – U.S. Congressman, R-Pennsylvania, 23rd Congressional District^[136]
• Ebenezer Stoddard (1807) – United States Representative from Connecticut.^[137]
• Daniel Wardwell (1811) – U.S. Congressman, New York (1831–1837)^[138]
• William Widnall (1926) – U.S. Congressman, R-New Jersey (1950–1975)^[139]
• John W. Wydler (1947) – U.S. Congressman, R-New York (1963–1981)^[140]

State legislators

Mee Moua

• Sullivan Ballou – member of Rhode Island House of Representatives; Major in Rhode Island militia; killed at First Battle of Bull Run; writer of the "Dear Sarah" letter featured prominently in the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War
• Antonio F. D. Cabral – member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1990–present)
• Dan Greenberg (A.B. 1988) – member of the Arkansas General Assembly (2006–present)
• Elijah Hamlin – member of the Maine Legislature and two-time candidate for Governor of Maine
• Steve Harrison (1990) – member of the West Virginia State Senate (2003–2006) and the West Virginia House of Delegates (1993–2002)
• Wingate Hayes (1844) – Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1859 to 1860
• Walter M. D. Kern (born 1937), politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1978 to 1990, where he represented the 40th Legislative District.^[141]
• Mee Moua (1992) – Minnesota State Senator, first elected Hmong-American politician
• Mark Strama (1990) – member of the Texas House of Representatives

Mark Strama

• Austin Volk – member of the New Jersey General Assembly and mayor of Englewood, New Jersey
• J. Aaron Regunberg – member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and 2018 Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island

Advisors

John Hay

• Charles W. "Chuck" Colson (1953) – chief counsel to Richard Nixon (1969–1973); figured in the Watergate Scandal; founder of Prison Fellowship
• Thomas Corcoran (1922) – member of President Franklin Roosevelt's "brain trust"; guided New Deal legislation; high-powered Washington lobbyist
• David F. Duncan (1995) – domestic policy advisor to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton; co-originator of the self-medication hypothesis of drug addiction
• Marvin Goodfriend (Ph.D. 1980) – The Friends of Allan H. Meltzer Professor of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University; pending nominee, Governors of the Federal Reserve^[147]
• John Hay – U.S. Secretary of State (1898–1905)
• Charles Hill (AB 1957) – Senior Lecturer in the Humanities, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy, Yale University; former executive aid to former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz; research fellow, Hoover Institution^[148][149]
• E. Howard Hunt (1940) – author, OSS & CIA officer, worked under President Richard Nixon; figured in the Watergate scandal
• Randall Kroszner (A.B. 1984) – member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• Ira Magaziner (1969) – Clinton advisor, current chairman of Clinton AIDS Initiative; co-instigator of Brown's New Curriculum
• Annette Nazareth (A.B. 1979) – former Securities and Exchange Commissioner, partner at Davis Polk & Wardell
• Richard Olney (1856) – United States Attorney General (1893–1895), United States Secretary of State (1895–1897)
• David Onek (1991) – candidate for District Attorney of San Francisco
• Thomas Perez (A.B. 1983) – U.S. Secretary of Labor
• Tahesha Way (A.B. 1993) – Secretary of State of New Jersey (2018– )^[144]
• Janet Yellen (A.B. 1967) – Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Trefethen Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley

Activists

Horace Mann

• Junaid Ahmad (AB) – economist; World Bank Country Director for India^[150]
• John Bonifaz (1987) – founder, National Voting Rights Institute, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Katherine Chon (BS 2002) – co-founder and Board President of anti-human trafficking non-profit Polaris Project
• Derek Ellerman (BS 2002) – co-founder and Board Chairman of anti-human trafficking non-profit Polaris Project, former Ashoka fellow and current Ashoka Ambassador
• Kathryn S. Fuller (A.B. 1968) – Chairman of the Board Ford Foundation former President and CEO of non-governmental organization World Wildlife Fund – U.S. (1989–2005)
• Samuel Gridley Howe (1821) – prominent physician, abolitionist, advocate of education for the blind
• Gene Karpinski (1974) – President, League of Conservation Voters
• Kerry Kennedy (A.B. 1981) – activist, writer; President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; former wife of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo; daughter of Robert F. Kennedy^[151]
• Maya Keyes – anarchist and gay rights activist
• Seth Magaziner (A.B. 2006) – candidate for Rhode Island General Treasurer
• Horace Mann (1819) – educationist; father of American public school education
• Nancy Northup (A.B. 1981) – President, Center for Reproductive Rights
• Nawal M. Nour (A.B. 1988) – physician, founder of the first hospital center in the United States devoted to the medical needs of African women who have undergone female circumcision, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship
• Cecile Richards (1980) – President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
• George Lincoln Rockwell (Class of 1942) – founder of the American Nazi Party; dropped out after sophomore year to join the Navy
• Kenneth Roth (A.B. 1978) – Executive Director of non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch
• Galina Starovoitova – visiting professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies 1994–1998; member of Russian Duma; leader of reformist Democratic Russia party; assassinated November 20, 1998
• Irving Stowe (AB 1936) – founder of Greenpeace^[152]
• Arvin Vohra – vice-chairman of the Libertarian National Committee

Jurists

Peleg Arnold

• Leslie Joyce Abrams (A.B. 1997) – District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia^[153]
• Asa Aldis (A.B. 1796) – Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court^[154]
• Peleg Arnold (A.B.) – Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1795 to 1812; represented Rhode Island as a delegate to the Continental Congress in the 1787–1788 session; incorporator of the Providence Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1790^[155]
• Haiganush R. Bedrosian (A.B. 1965) – Chief Justice, Rhode Island Family Court^[156]
• Francisco Besosa (A.B. 1971) – District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico
• Theodore R. Boehm (A.B. 1960) – Justice, Supreme Court of Indiana^[157]
• Charles S. Bradley (A.B. 1838) – Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court
• George Moulton Carpenter (B.A. 1864) – Federal Judge for United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island
• Herbert F. DeSimone (B.A. 1910) – Attorney General of Rhode Island and Assistant Secretary of Transportation^[158]
• Job Durfee (A.B. 1813) – Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Samuel Eddy (1787) – U.S Congressman, Rhode Island (1819–1825), Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court (1827–1835)
• John Patrick Hartigan (B.A. 1951) – Rhode Island Attorney General, 1933–1939; US District Court, 1940–1951; US Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 1951–1968^[159]
• Charles Evans Hughes (A.B. 1881) – 11th Chief Justice of the United States (1930–1941); Governor of New York (1907–1910); U.S. Secretary of State (1921–1925)
• Charles Evans Hughes Jr. (A.B. 1909) – 20th United States Solicitor General; son of Charles Evans Hughes^[160]
• Alfred H. Joslin (B.A. 1936) - Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (1963-1979)

• Patrick C. Lynch – Rhode Island Attorney General (D)
• Theron Metcalf (A.B. 1805) – Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court^[161]
• Marcus Morton (1838) – Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1882–1890)
• Michael Newdow (Sc. B. 1974) – atheist doctor and lawyer who unsuccessfully argued Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow before the U.S. Supreme Court
• Solomon Sibley (A.B. 1794) – Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
• Kenneth Starr (M.A. 1969) – former U.S. Solicitor General; former U.S. appeals court judge; special counsel in Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings; President of Baylor University
• Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson (A.B. 1973) – federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and former Rhode Island Superior Court judge
• Craig Waters (A.B. 1979) – communications counsel to the Florida Supreme Court

Business

• Scott Aversano (A.B. 1991) – president of MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies
• Marvin Bower (Sc. B. 1925) – co-founder of McKinsey & Company
• Willard C. Butcher (1948) – chairman and CEO, Chase Manhattan Bank
• Lisa Caputo – chief marketing officer, Citigroup
• John S. Chen (Sc.B. 1978) – Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry Limited
• David Ebersman (A.B. 1991) – Chief Financial Officer of Facebook Inc.
• Donna M. Fernandes (Sc.B 1981) President and CEO, Buffalo Zoo 2000–2017
• Tom First (A.B. 1989) co-founder of Nantucket Nectars with Tom Scott (1989)
• George M. C. Fisher (Sc. M. 1964, Ph.D. 1966) – former CEO of Motorola and Eastman Kodak Company
• Sidney E. Frank (class of 1942) – billionaire founder of Grey Goose and Jägermeister

Nina Jacobson

John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

• Tom Gardner (A.B. 1990) – co-founder and co-chairman of the Motley Fool
• Jeffrey W. Greenberg (A.B. 1973) – chairman and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies
• Ross Greenburg (1977) – president of HBO Sports
• Walter Hoving (1920) – CEO of Tiffany & Co.
• Bradley S. Jacobs (class of 1979) – chairman and CEO of XPO Logistics
• Nina Jacobson (A.B. 1987) – former president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Jonathan Klein (A.B. 1980) – former president of CNN U.S. News
• Liz Lange (A.B. 1988) – founder of Liz Lange Maternity
• Debra L. Lee (A.B. 1976) – chairman and CEO of Black Entertainment Television
• Gordon Macklin (A.B. 1950) – former president and CEO, NASDAQ
• Brian Moynihan (A.B. 1981) – president and CEO, Bank of America
• Steven Price, co-founder of Townsquare Media, and minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks
• Ajit Ranade – Chief Economist with the Aditya Birla Group
• Steven Rattner (A.B. 1974) – deputy chairman and deputy CEO of Lazard Frères & Co.
• William R. Rhodes (1957) – senior vice chairman of Citigroup
• Stephen Robert (A.B. 1962), Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer & Co. (1983–1997), Chancellor of Brown University (1998–2007)
• John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1897) – son of John D. Rockefeller and builder of Rockefeller Center
• Tom Rothman (A.B. 1976) – president, 20th Century Fox Film Group

Ted Turner

• Tom Scott (A.B. 1989) – co-founder of Nantucket Nectars, with Tom First
• John Sculley (A.B. 1961) – president of PepsiCo (1977–1983); CEO of Apple Computer (1983–1993)
• Lawrence M. Small (A.B. 1963) – president of Fannie Mae; secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
• Orin R. Smith – Chairman and CEO, Engelhard (1999–2001)
• Barry Sternlicht (A.B. 1982) – founder of Starwood Capital Group and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
• Varun Thapar – (A.B. 2007) – executive with the Thapar Group
• Ted Turner (Class of 1960 but did not graduate) – billionaire founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting
• Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (1937) – president and CEO of IBM (1956–1971); U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1979–1981)
• Meredith Whitney (A.B. 1992) – equity research analyst notable for her prediction of the financial crisis of 2007–2009

Journalism

• Jim Axelrod (A.M. 1989) – Chief White House correspondent, CBS News
• Chris Berman (A.B. 1977) – ESPN host and anchor
• Martin Bernheimer – Pulitzer Prize–winning music critic
• Duncan B. Black, aka Atrios – blogger
• Robert Conley (1953) – founding member and former General Manager of NPR; creator and original host of All Things Considered; former New York Times front-page correspondent; National Geographic writer; reporter and anchor for NBC and the Huntley-Brinkley Report
• Gareth Cook (A.B. 1991) – Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, Boston Globe, for writing about stem cell research
• Dana Cowin (A.B. 1982) – Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine
• Lyn Crost (A.B. 1938) – World War II correspondent and author, Honor by Fire:Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific
• Adrian Dearnell – Franco-American financial journalist, CEO and founder of EuroBusiness Media^[162]
• Larry Elder (A.B. 1974) – columnist; radio personality; TV talk show host, The Larry Elder Show; author, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America
• Chip Giller (A.B.) – environmentalist, founder of Grist
• Ira Glass (A.B. 1982) – host and producer, National Public Radio, This American Life
• Catherine Gund (A.B. 1988) – documentary filmmaker; activist^[163]
• Christopher L. Hayes (A.B. 2001) – Editor of The Nation and host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC
• Taina Hernandez (A.B. 1996) – anchor of World News Now on ABC
• Tony Horwitz – journalist, Wall Street Journal, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
• A.J. Jacobs – journalist and author, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, The Year of Living Biblically
• Amy Kellogg (A.B. 1987) – news reporter for the Fox News Channel
• John F. Kennedy, Jr. (A.B. 1983) – lawyer; journalist; publisher of George magazine; son of President John F. Kennedy; killed in an airplane crash on July 16, 1999
• Glenn Kessler (A.B. 1981) – diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post
• Irving R. Levine – former NBC News correspondent
• Mara Liasson (1977) – NPR correspondent
• Bill Lichtenstein (1978) – journalist, documentary filmmaker, president of LCMedia, Inc.; recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship, Peabody Award, U.N. Media Award, and 60 broadcast journalism honors.
• Mark Maremont (1980) – senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal; two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
• Josh Marshall (Ph.D. 2003) – Polk Award-winning journalist; founder, Talking Points Memo
• Linda Mason (1964) – producer and VP, CBS News; winner of 13 Emmy Awards
• George Musser (Sc. B. 1988) – author and editor at Scientific American
• Scott Poulson-Bryant (A.B. 2008, though originally in Class of 1989) – co-founding editor of VIBE Magazine and author of HUNG: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America
• Andrew C. Revkin (A.B. 1978) – environmental journalist, New York Times; recipient of 2008 Columbia University Journalism School John Chancellor Award
• Quentin Reynolds – one of two journalists in London during The Blitz
• James Risen – journalist for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times covering national intelligence; author of two books about the Central Intelligence Agency; broke the 2005 story of warrantless NSA wiretapping; 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner
• David S. Rohde (A.B. 1990) – Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist; escaped from 7-month Taliban captivity in 2009
• Margaret Russell – Editor-in-Chief, Elle Decor magazine; design judge, Top Design
• Aaron Schatz (1996) – ESPN NFL analyst, founder of Football Outsiders
• Kathryn Schulz (A.B. 1996) – contributor to the Freakonomics blog and freelance journalist
• Julia Flynn Siler (A.B. 1983) – journalist and nonfiction author^[164]
• Amy Sohn (A.B. 1995) – columnist, New York magazine; novelist, Run Catch Kiss and Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell
• Alison Stewart (A.B. 1988) – host, MSNBC's The Most with Alison Stewart
• Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (A.B. 2005) – publisher, The New York Times
• André Leon Talley (A.M. 1973) – Vogue magazine editor-at-large; author, A.L.T.: A Memoir
• Krista Tippett (A.B. 1983) – host, NPR's Speaking of Faith
• Alex Wagner (A.B. 1999) – host, Now with Alex Wagner, MSNBC
• Lady Gabriella Windsor (A.B. 2004) – member of the British royal family^[165]

Literature

• David Allyn (A.B. 1991) – author, Make Love, Not War, I Can't Believe I Just Did That, playwright, Baptizing Adam
• Daniel Altieri ^[166] (A.M. 1971) – author, translator, The Court of the Lion,^[167]Deception/Iron Empress,^[168] Shangri-la,^{[169] [170]}Shore of Pearls,;^[168] The Death of Fernie;^[171][172]
• Donald Antrim (A.B. 1981) – author, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, The Verificationist, The Hundred Brothers, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• Jacob M. Appel (A.B. 1995) – author, playwright, Arborophilia, Creve Coeur, The Mistress of Wholesome
• Peter Balakian (Ph.D. 1980) – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Ozone Journal
• Edward Ball (1982) – National Book Award-winning nonfiction writer, Slaves in the Family, The Genetic Strand
• Aliki Barnstone (A.B., M.A.) – poet and translator, author of Bright Body, four other poetry books, and The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy: A New Translation
• Josh Bazell, novelist
• Lisa Birnbach (A.B. 1978) – author, The Official Preppy Handbook
• Kate Bornstein (née Albert Bornstein) (A.B. 1969) – transgender activist, performance artist, playwright, gender theorist, and author, Gender Outlaws and My Gender Workbook

Edwidge Danticat

• Jeffrey Carver (A.B. 1971) – science fiction author, Nebula Award finalist
• Susan Cheever (1965) – author
• Ted Chiang – Nebula Award, Locus Award, and Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer
• Brian Christian (A.B. 2006) – author, The Most Human Human
• Nicole Cooley (A.B. 1988) – poet, Professor of English, Queens College, City University of New York^[173]
• Nilo Cruz (M.F.A. 1994) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Anna in the Tropics
• Edwidge Danticat (M.F.A. 1993) – American Book Award-winning author, Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Dew Breaker, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• David Ebershoff – Lambda Literary Award-winning author, The Danish Girl, editor-at-large at Random House, professor at Columbia University
• Jeffrey Eugenides (A.B. 1983) – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides, The Marriage Plot
• Percival Everett (A.M. 1982) – novelist, poet; Distinguished Professor of English, University of Southern California^[174]
• Rudolph Fisher (A.B. 1919, A.M. 1920) – author, musician, physician; a leader of the Harlem Renaissance
• Richard Foreman (A.B. 1959) – playwright/avant-garde theater pioneer; founder, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• Sarah Gambito (M.F.A., 1999) – poet; director of creative writing, Fordham University^[175]
• Deborah Garrison (A.B.) – poet^[176]
• Peter Gizzi (M.F.A. 1991) – poet, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers
• Jaimy Gordon – National Book Award-winning author, Lord of Misrule
• Andrew Sean Greer – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Less, The Path of Minor Planets, The Confessions of Max Tivoli
• Scott Haltzman (1982, M.D. 1985) – psychiatrist, author of The Secrets of Happily Married Men: Eight Ways to Win Your Wife's Heart Forever
• Tony Horwitz (A.B. 1980) – Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author of Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, and Baghdad Without a Map
• Kika Hotta (A.B. 1997) – haiku and tanka poet, critic, translator
• Constance Hunting (A.B. 1947) – poet, founder of Puckerbrush Press
• Shelley Jackson (M.F.A.) – author, Patchwork Girl, Half Life
• Steven Johnson (A.B. 1990) – writer, pop-science, author, Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
• Winthrop Jordan (PhD 1960) – American Civil War and racial history writer, winner of the National Book Award and the Bancroft Prize
• Barbara Keiler (A.M. 1976 in creative writing) – romance novelist, specializing in the contemporary subgenre; has written as "Ariel Berk", "Judith Arnold" and "Thea Frederick"
• T. E. D. Klein (A.B. 1969) – horror fiction writer and magazine editor
• Caroline Knapp (A.B.) – essayist and author, Drinking: A Love Story
• Richard Kostelanetz (A.B.1962) – cultural historian, fictioner, poet, experimental writer, critic of avant-garde arts and artists, anthologist
• Geoffrey A. Landis (Ph.D. 1988) – Nebula Award and Hugo Award-winning scientist-writer and science fiction author
• Reif Larsen (A.B 2003) – professor at Columbia University; author, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
• Ben Lerner (A.B. 2001, M.F.A. 2003) – poet, author of Angle of Yaw, Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Lichtenberg Figures, recipient of the MacArthur fellowship
• David Levithan (A.B. 1993) – author, Boy Meets Boy, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
• Alan Levy – author
• David Lipsky (A.B. 1987) – author, Three Thousand Dollars, The Art Fair, Absolutely American
• Sam Lipsyte (A.B. 1990) – author, Home Land, Venus Drive, The Fun Parts
• Lois Lowry (Class of 1958) – Newbery Medal-winning author, The Giver
• Thomas Mallon (A.B.) – author, Henry and Clara, Bandbox, Dewey Defeats Truman, Two Moons
• Ben Marcus (M.F.A. 1991) – author, The Age of Wire and String, Notable American Women
• Alex McAulay (A.B.) – author, Bad Girls, Lost Summer, Oblivion Road, Shelter Me
• Emily Arnold McCully (A.B. 1961) – Caldecott Award-winning children's author, Mirette on the High Wire
• Mark C. McGarrity (A.B. 1966) – wrote crime fiction under the name Bartholomew Gill
• Roland Merullo (A.B., M.A.) – author
• Madeline Miller (A.B. 2000, A.M. 2001) – Women's Prize for Fiction-winning author of The Song of Achilles and Circe^[177]
• Steven Millhauser – Pulitzer Prize–winning author, Martin Dressler
• Rick Moody (A.B. 1983) – author, The Ice Storm, Garden State, Purple America, The Diviners
• Rebecca Morris – nonficton author, Ted and Ann, If I Can't Have You, A Killing in Amish Country
• Ottessa Moshfegh (M.F.A. 2011) – writer, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation^[178]
• Emily Nemens (A.B. 2005) – writer, editor, the Paris Review^[179]
• Naomi Novik – fantasy author, His Majesty's Dragon
• Nicanor Parra – Chilean poet, author of Poemas y Antipoemas

Solomon Drowne

• S. J. Perelman – humorist, The New Yorker; author; Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Around the World in Eighty Days
• Nathaniel Philbrick – nonfiction writer; National Book Award winner, In the Heart of the Sea, Sea of Glory, Mayflower
• Marilynne Robinson (A.B. 1966) – Pulitzer Prize and Orange Prize-winning author, Gilead, Housekeeping, Home
• Ariel Sabar (A.B. 1993) – author, National Book Critics Circle Award 2009 for My Father's Paradise
• Joanna Scott (M.A. 1985) – author, recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction
• David Shenk (A.B. 1988) – filmmaker and author, The End of Patience, Data Smog, whose title has entered the English vocabulary
• David Shields (A.B. 1978) – author, Reality Hunger
• Scott Snyder (B.A. 1998) – author of the story collection Voodoo Heart and writer of Vertigo Comics's ongoing original series American Vampire
• Brian Kim Stefans (M.F.A. 2006) – poet, professor of English at UCLA, author of Viva Miscegenation and Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics
• Hyatt Howe Waggoner (1913–1988), scholar of Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Nathanael West (1924) – author, Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust
• Meg Wolitzer (A.B. 1981) – author, Belzhar, The Interestings, The Position, The Ten-Year Nap
• Kevin Young (M.F.A. 1996) – poetry editor, New Yorker; director, Schomburg Center^[180]

Medicine

Varnum, painted posthumously in 1804 by Charles Willson Peale

• Samuel Warren Abbott (A.M. 1858) – first medical examiner and first secretary of Massachusetts's first state board of health from 1886 to 1904
• Lynda Chin (A.B. 1988) – department chair and professor of genomic medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; scientific director of the MD Anderson Institute for Applied Cancer Science; in 2012 was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies^[181]
• George E. Coghill – anatomist
• Solomon Drowne (A.B. 1773) – physician, academic and surgeon during the American Revolution and in the history of the fledgling United States; member of Brown's Board of Fellows
• David C. Lewis (A.B. 1957) – Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Community Health and first Donald G. Millar Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown; a leading researcher and activist on drugs policy issues
• Neel Shah – Executive Director of Costs of Care, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
• Gail G. Shapiro – pediatric allergist

Military

• G. Edward Buxton (Ph.B. 1902) – commanding officer of Sergeant Alvin C. York; first assistant director of the OSS
• James Mitchell Varnum (A.B. 1769) – General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and justice of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territory

Performing arts

Film

• Eva Amurri (2007) – actress, Loving Annabelle (2005), Saved! (2004), The Banger Sisters (2002); daughter of Susan Sarandon
• Scott E. Anderson (Sc.B. 1986) – Academy Award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor, "Babe" (1995), and nominee "Starship Troopers" (1997), "Hollow Man" (2000)
• Bess Armstrong (1975) – actress, The Four Seasons (1981), High Road to China (1983)
• David Bartis (A.B. 1988) – producer, "The Wall (2017 film)", "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014), "Fair Game" (2010)
• Steve Bloom (A.B.) – screenwriter, James and the Giant Peach, The Sure Thing, Tall Tale, Jack Frost
• David Conrad (A.B.) – actor, Wedding Crashers, Ghost Whisperer
• Yaya Da Costa (A.B. 2004) – actress, Take the Lead (2006), Honeydripper (2007), The Kids Are All Right (2010), The Butler (2013); fashion model
• Lucy DeVito (B.F.A.) – actress, Leaves of Grass (2009)
• Tom Dey (A.B. 1987) – director, Shanghai Noon (2000), Showtime (2002), Failure to Launch (2006), Marmaduke (2010)
• Alice Drummond (A.B. 1950) – actress, Awakenings (1990), Nobody's Fool (1994), Doubt (2008)
• Richard Fleischer (A.B. 1939) – director, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), The Narrow Margin (1952), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), The Boston Strangler (1968), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Mandingo (1975), Soylent Green (1973); Academy Award-winning documentary producer, Design for Death (1947)
• Josh Friedman – screenwriter, War of the Worlds, The Black Dahlia; executive producer, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Liz Garbus (A.B. 1992) – Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, The Farm: Angola, USA (1998)
• Davis Guggenheim (1986) – Academy Award-winning documentary film director, An Inconvenient Truth (2006), It Might Get Loud (2009), and Waiting for "Superman" (2010); film director for Gracie (2007), Gossip (2000), and episodes of 24, Alias, The Shield, ER, NYPD Blue
• John Hamburg (A.B.) – director, I Love You, Man (2009), Along Came Polly (2004); screenwriter, Zoolander (2001), Meet the Parents (2000), Meet the Fockers (2004)
• Hill Harper (A.B. 1988) – actor, Constellation (2005), Lackawanna Blues (2005), CSI: NY (2004)
• Todd Haynes (A.B. 1983) – Academy Award-nominated writer/director, Mildred Pierce (2011), I'm Not There (2007), Far from Heaven (2002), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Safe (1995), and Poison (1991)

Rory Kennedy

• Sean Hood – screenwriter, Conan the Barbarian, Halloween: Resurrection, Cursed, Cube 2: Hypercube
• Ruth Hussey (A.B. 1933) – Academy Award-nominated actress, The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• Oren Jacoby – Academy Award-nominated documentarian, Constantine's Sword (2008)
• Rory Kennedy (A.B. 1991) – independent filmmaker, Moxie Firecracker Films, Inc.; Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007)
• Simon Kinberg – screenwriter and producer, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Jumper (2008), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
• John Krasinski (A.B. 2001) – playwright, actor, The Office, License to Wed, Leatherheads
• Ellen Kuras – cinematographer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Blow, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Be Kind Rewind
• Jonathan Levine (A.B. 2000) – writer/director, Warm Bodies (2013), 50/50 (2011), The Wackness (2008), All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
• Doug Liman (A.B. 1988) – director and producer, The O.C., Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Fair Game (2010),Jumper (2008), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), Go (1999), Swingers (1996)
• Laura Linney (A.B. 1986) – three-time Academy Award and two-time Tony Award-nominated actress, The Big C, The Savages (2007), The Nanny Diaries (2007), The Squid and the Whale (2005),The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Kinsey (2004), Mystic River (2003), Love Actually (2003), You Can Count on Me (2000), The Truman Show (1998), Absolute Power (1997), Primal Fear (1997)
• Kurt Luedtke (A.B. 1961) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Out of Africa (1985)
• Kátia Lund (A.B. 1989) – co-director, Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002)
• George Macready (A.B., 1921) – actor of film, stage, and television, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Paths of Glory
• Eli Marienthal (Class of 2008) – actor, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), The Iron Giant (1999), Jack Frost (1998)
• Ross McElwee (A.B. 1970) – documentary filmmaker, Sherman's March (1986) and Bright Leaves (2004)
• Leah Meyerhoff (A.B. 2001) – Student Academy Award-nominated writer/director, Twitch (2005)
• Tim Blake Nelson (A.B. 1986) – actor, Lincoln (2012), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Syriana (2005), Minority Report (2002), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Thin Red Line (1998); director, Leaves of Grass (2009), O (2001), The Grey Zone (2001)
• Lorraine Nicholson (2012) – actress, Soul Surfer (2011)
• Angela Robinson (A.B. 1992) – director, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), D.E.B.S. (2003), D.E.B.S. (2004)
• Danny Rubin (A.B. 1979) – screenwriter, Groundhog Day
• Michael Showalter (A.B. 1992) – actor/writer/director, Wet Hot American Summer (2001), The Baxter (2005) and the series The State, Stella and Michael & Michael Have Issues
• Leelee Sobieski (attended) – actress, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Never Been Kissed (1999), Here on Earth (2000), Joy Ride (2001), The Glass House (2001), Wicker Man (2006), 88 Minutes (2007), Public Enemies (2009); nominated for an Emmy for Joan of Arc
• Alison Stewart (A.B. 1988) – radio and television journalist; filmmaker
• Matthew Sussman – actor, documentary filmmaker
• Sara Tanaka (A.B. 2000) – actress, Rushmore (1998), Old School (2003), Imaginary Heroes (2004)
• Christine Vachon (A.B. 1983) – acclaimed independent film producer, I'm Not There (2007), Infamous (2006), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), Far From Heaven (2002), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Boys Don't Cry (1999); executive producer, This American Life
• Andrew Wagner (A.B. 1985) – writer, director, Starting Out in the Evening (2007), The Talent Given Us (2004)
• Earl Wallace (A.B. 1955) – Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Witness (1985)
• Julie Warner (A.B. 1987) – actress, Doc Hollywood, Tommy Boy
• Emma Watson (A.B. 2014) – actress, the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011), Ballet Shoes (2007), The Tale of Despereaux (2008), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Beauty and the Beast (2017).
• JoBeth Williams (A.B. 1970) – actress, The Big Chill, Poltergeist

Television

• Julie Bowen (A.B. 1991) – actress, Modern Family,Boston Legal, Ed, Happy Gilmore (1996)
• Warren Brown – host, Sugar Rush
• Jessica Capshaw (A.B. 1998) – actress, Grey's Anatomy,The Practice, Minority Report (2002)
• Jordan Carlos (A.B. 2001) – comedian, Stephen Colbert's "black friend"
• Kitty Chen (B.A. 1966) – actress, Law & Order, writer
• Jude Ciccolella (B.A. 1969) – actor, best known for his role as Mike Novick in 24
• Aunjanue Ellis (A.B. 1993) – actress, The Mentalist
• Eve Gordon (B.A. 1978) – actress, Recount, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, Felicity, American Horror Story, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, Supernatural
• Robin Green (1967) – Emmy Award-winning writer/producer, The Sopranos, Northern Exposure
• David Groh (1961) – actor, Rhoda
• Marin Hinkle – actress, Once and Again, Two and a Half Men
• Tina Holmes (1995) – actress, Six Feet Under
• Peter Jacobson (1987) – actor, House M.D.
• Rafe Judkins – contestant on Survivor: Guatemala, television writer
• Rhonda Ross Kendrick (A.B. 1993) – Daytime Emmy-nominated actress, Another World, daughter of Diana Ross
• Rory Kennedy (A.B. 1990) – Emmy Award-winning documentary producer, director, and writer, American Hollow (1999), Fire in Our House (1995), Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Masi Oka

• John Krasinski (A.B. 2002) – actor, The Office, Leatherheads, License to Wed
• Clea Lewis (A.B. 1987) – actress, Ellen, Andy Barker, P.I.
• Florencia Lozano (B.A. 1992) – actress, One Life to Live
• Ian Maxtone-Graham (A.B. 1982.5) – writer, producer, The Simpsons, "Saturday Night Live"
• Masi Oka (Sc. B. 1997) – actor, Heroes, Scrubs, Will and Grace, Gilmore Girls, Get Smart (2008)
• Tracee Ellis Ross (A.B. 1995) – actress, Girlfriends, Blackish, daughter of Diana Ross
• Sam Trammell (A.B. 1991) – actor, True Blood
• Bee Vang – actor, Gran Torino^[184]
• Julie Warner (A.B. 1987) – actress, Nip/Tuck, Family Law, The Guiding Light
• Suzanne Whang (Sc. M. 1986) – General Hospital, Las Vegas; host HGTV's House Hunters
• David Walton – actor, About a Boy

Theater

• Ayad Akhtar (1993) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Disgraced
• Quiara Alegría Hudes (M.F.A. 2004) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Water by the Spoonful, In the Heights (Tony Award winner for Best Musical), Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue
• Adam Bock (1989) – Obie Award-winning playwright, The Thugs
• Kate Burton (A.B. 1979) – actress; nominated for three Tony Awards; on Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Ellis Grey
• Zoë Chao (B.A. and M.F.A.) — actress in theatre and star of her own television show The God Particles; currently starring as Isobel in Facebook Watch drama Strangers
• Nilo Cruz (M.F.A.) – Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, Anna in the Tropics
• Daveed Diggs (A.B. 2004) – actor, Tony Award-winning originator of the roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in the Pulitzer-Prize winning 2015 musical Hamilton
• Gina Gionfriddo (M.F.A. 1997) – playwright, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Becky Shaw (2009) and Rapture, Blister, Burn (2013); producer, Law and Order]
• Stephen Karam – playwright, Speech & Debate (2006); Tony Award winner, The Humans (2016); two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Sons of the Prophet (2012) and The Humans
• James Naughton (A.B. 1967) – actor, two-time Tony Award winner for City of Angels (1992) and Chicago (1996); also featured in films such as The Paper Chase (1973), The Glass Menagerie (1987) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• Lynn Nottage (A.B. 1986) – First female playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize twice, Macarthur fellowship recipient, Ruined, Sweat
• Sarah Ruhl (A.B. 1997, M.F.A 2001) – playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, recipient of the Macarthur fellowship, The Clean House, Eurydice, Passion Play, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
• Burt Shevelove – Tony Award-winning playwright, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• Alfred Uhry – playwright; Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award and Tony Award winner, Driving Miss Daisy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo
• David Yazbek (1982) – Tony and Emmy Award-winning writer, musician, composer, and lyricist, The Band's Visit (2017), The Full Monty (2000), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010)
• John Lloyd Young (A.B. 1998) – actor; Tony Award winner for Jersey Boys (2006); lead vocalist, 2007 Grammy-winning Jersey Boys album for Clint Eastwood's 2014 Jersey Boys; member of President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (appointed by Barack Obama)

Rev. Joshua Toulmin

Religion

The Rt. Reverend Bishop Griswold

Rev. Adoniram Judson

• Alfred W. Anthony (A.B. 1883) – Professor at Bates College and Cobb Divinity School, author, Free Will Baptist minister
• Mark E. Brennan (A.B. 1969) – Catholic auxiliary bishop of Baltimore
• Alexander Viets Griswold (A.B. 1810) – Episcopal Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, which included all of New England with the exception of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
• Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (A.B. 1828) – first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania; because the original Diocese of Central Pennsylvania was the predecessor diocese of the current Diocese of Bethlehem, he is counted as first bishop of Bethlehem as well
• William Bullein Johnson (A.M. 1814) – South Carolina Baptist leader; first president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Associate of first president of Columbian College (later The George Washington University) William Staughton and Luther Rice; instrumental in founding Furman University, out of which emerged Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Adoniram Judson (A.B. 1807) – Baptist missionary; due to his efforts, Myanmar has the third largest number of Baptists worldwide, behind the United States and India
• Jonathan Maxcy (A.B. 1787) – President of Brown University and Baptist minister
• George Maxwell Randall (A.B. 1835) – Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and Parts Adjacent
• Joshua Toulmin (A.M. 1769) – English dissenting minister with U.S. sympathies

Royalty

• Leila Pahlavi (A.B. 1992) – Princess of Iran; youngest daughter of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, deposed Shah of Iran
• Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein (Sc.B. 1985) – son of the late King Hussein of Jordan; Commander of the Jordan Royal Air Force
• Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark (A.B. 1993) – member of the titular royal family of Greece
• Prince Rahim Aga Khan (A.B. 1995) – eldest son of Prince Karim Aga Khan IV
• Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (A.B. 2006) – member of the titular royal family of Greece

Visual arts

• Jonathan Adler (A.B. 1988) – potter, designer and author
• Deborah Aschheim (B.A. 1986) – new media artist
• Marc Erwin Babej (B.A. 1992) – photographic artist, writer
• Dave Cole (A.B. 2000) – sculptor, visual artist
• John Connell (Class of 1962) – sculptor, painter
• Barnaby Evans (1975) – creator of the environmental art installation WaterFire
• Leya Evelyn – painter
• Brian Floca (A.B. 1991) – author and book illustrator
• Susan Freedman (A.B. 1982) – president of the Public Art Fund, an arts organization that commissions public installations by established and emerging contemporary visual artists
• Isca Greenfield-Sanders (A.B. 2000) – artist
• Karl Haendel (A.B. 1998) – artist
• Ilana Halperin (B.A. 1995) – artist
• John G. Haskell – architect of Kansas public buildings, including the Kansas State Capitol
• Raymond Hood (1902) – architect whose works include Tribune Tower in Chicago and Rockefeller Center in New York
• Charles Evans Hughes III (A.B.) – architect, grandson of Charles Evans Hughes^[185]
• Norman Isham (A.B. 1886, M.A. 1890) – Rhode Island historical architect
• Clare Johnson (A.B. 2004) – artist and writer
• Ken Johnson (A.B. 1976) – art critic for the New York Times
• Paul Ramirez Jonas (A.B. 1987) – contemporary artist
• Nina Katchadourian (A.B. 1989) – multimedia artist
• Ed Koren (former professor) – writer and illustrator of children's books and political cartoons, notably in The New Yorker
• Richard Kostelanetz (A.B. 1962) – book-art, audio, video, photography, film, holography
• Paul Laffoley (A.B. 1962) – artist and architect
• Sarah Oppenheimer (A.B. 1995) – visual artist and sculptor
• Maureen Paley (A.B. 1975) – established the first East End gallery in London, represents the work of important contemporary artists
• Jeff Shesol (A.B. 1991) – cartoonist, Thatch; scriptwriter for Bill Clinton^[186]
• Taryn Simon – fine art photographer
• Scott Snibbe (A.B. 1991, M.Sc. 1994) – interactive media artist
• Anne Morgan Spalter (A.B. 1987) – digital mixed media artist and pioneering computer art academic; founder of Brown's and RISD's original digital fine arts courses
• Thomas Alexander Tefft (1851) – pioneer American architect
• Kerry Tribe (A.B. 1997) – installation artist^[187]
• Mark Tribe (A.B. 1990) – artist; chair of the School of Visual Arts' MFA program^[188]
• Saya Woolfalk (A.B. 2001) – multimedia artist

Athletics

Football

John Heisman

• Don Colo (1950) – professional football player, three-time Pro Bowl selection; played for the Cleveland Browns^[201]
• Zak DeOssie (2007) – linebacker and long snapper for the New York Giants, two-time Pro Bowl selection (2008, 2010)^[202]
• James Develin (2010) – fullback for the New England Patriots; 2014 and 2016 Super Bowl Champion
• John W. Heisman (Class of 1891) – college football player and coach; namesake of the Heisman Trophy^[203]
• Steve Jordan (Sc.B. 1982) – professional football player, six-time All-Pro tight end who played for the Minnesota Vikings^[204]
• Sean Morey – Special Teams Captain of 2005 Super Bowl XL Champion Pittsburgh Steelers^[205]
• Bill O'Brien (A.B. 1992) – Assistant Football Coach and Offensive Coordinator of the New England Patriots, Head Coach of Penn State,^[206] Head Coach of the Houston Texans
• Joe Paterno (A.B. 1950) – Head Coach for Penn State (1966–2011), all-time winningest Division I football coach^[207]
• Fritz Pollard (A.B. 1919) – first black All-American halfback; first black National Football League head coach; inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame^[208]
• Edward North Robinson (1896) – football coach at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Brown, Tufts, Boston University, and for the Providence Steam Roller; member of the College Football Hall of Fame^[209]
• Wallace Wade (1917) – football coach at the University of Alabama and then Duke, member of the College Football Hall of Fame; namesake of Duke's football stadium^[210]

Colonial Era Brown graduates (1769–1783)

• Solomon Drowne
• Dwight Foster
• Theodore Foster
• Esek Hopkins
• David Howell, A.M.
• Joshua Toulmin, A.M.
• James Mitchell Varnum
• Samuel Ward, Jr.

Unclassified

• Michael V. Bhatia (A.B. 1999) – Medal of Freedom recipient
• Alexandra Bruce (A.B. 1986) – publisher, author, filmmaker
• Dana Buchman (A.B. 1973) – fashion designer
• Amy Carter (Class of 1989) – daughter of former President Jimmy Carter; political activist
• William C. Chase (A.B. 1916) – soldier
• Alexandra Kerry – daughter of presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John Kerry
• Kimberly Ovitz (A.B. 2005) – fashion designer
• Andre Leon Talley (M.A. 1973) – editor of Vogue Magazine
• Cara Mund (Class of 2016) – Miss America 2018
• Allegra Versace (Class of 2008) – heiress to Gianni Versace's fortune and daughter of Donatella Versace