Jon Agee

Award-winning children’s book writer and illustrator

Alash Ensemble

Trio of master throat singers from Tuva

Alan Alda

Oscar nominated actor and visiting professor at Stony Brook University

Yazmany Arboleda

Artist and co-founder of limeSHIFT, a creative agency that brings artists into public and private communities

Isobel Armstrong

Fellow of the British Academy and professor at Princeton University

Billy Aronson

Emmy Award-winning co-creator of Peg + Cat

Charles Bailyn

Professor of astronomy and physics, Yale University

Dan Barber

Chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Seth Barrish

Actor, director, and artistic director

James G. Basker

President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute and professor of literature, Barnard College

Robert Battle

Artistic Director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Linda Bell

Provost and Claire Tow Professor of Economics, Barnard College.

Manjul Bhargava

Fields Medalist and professor of mathematics, Princeton University

Mike Birbiglia

Comedian, writer, director

Mark Bittman

Food expert, author, and former columnist for The New York Times

Rubén Blades

Actor, activist, composer, and singer with 13 Grammy Awards

Casey Nelson Blake

Professor of ​history​ and ​Director​ of the Center for American Studies,​ Columbia University

Ron Blake

Member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live Band and faculty member at the Juilliard School

David Blight

Professor of American history at Yale University and ​D​irector of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery

Richard H. Brodhead

President emeritus, Duke University

Christopher Brown

Professor of history at Columbia University

Brenda Jo Brueggemann

Professor of English and disability studies, University of Connecticut

Frank Bruni

New York Times columnist and author

Rika Burnham

Head of Education at the Frick Collection, winner of the James D. Burke Prize for Achievement in the Arts

Michael Caplan

C.N.H. Long Professor and Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine

Sylvain Cappell

Professor of mathematics, Courant Institute, New York University

Martin Chalfie

Nobel laureate and professor of biology, Columbia University

Kartik Chandran

Environmental engineer at Columbia University and MacArthur “genius”

Roz Chast

New Yorker cartoonist and author and illustrator of award-winning books

Susan Choi

Novelist and recipient of the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the PEN/W.G. Sebald award

Christopher Clark

Professor of history, the University of Connecticut

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Journalist, National Book Award-winner, and a MacArthur “genius”

Kenneth Cole

Fashion designer and activist

Billy Collins

Former poet laureate of the United States

Gail Collins

New York Times columnist and author

Cecilia A. Conrad

Economist and Vice President of the MacArthur Fellows program

James L. Cott

United States magistrate judge for the Southern District of New York

Alice Crary

Chair of the Department of Philosophy, The New School

Mary Cregan

Essayist, author, and lecturer at Barnard College

David M. Darst

Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

Edmund de Waal

Artist and award-winning author

Andrew Delbanco

Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and recipient of National Humanities Medal

Nick Demeris

Singer, conductor, and composer

Vinny DePonto

Mentalist, illusionist, and theater maker

Dickson Despommier

Professor emeritus of microbiology and public health, Columbia University

Eli Dueker

Assistant Professor of biology and Director of the Environmental and Urban Studies program, Bard College

Paul Engelmayer

United States district judge for the Southern District of New York

Ernesto Estrella

Spanish poet and former assistant professor of contemporary poetry at Yale University

Oskar Eustis

Artistic Director, The Public Theater

Linda Ferber

Senior art historian and museum director emerita, New-York Historical Society

David Ferriero

The Archivist of the United States

Stuart Firestein

Chair of Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences

Ed Folsom

Roy J. Carver Professor of English, The University of Iowa

Eric Foner

American historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University

Richard A. Friedman

Professor of clinical psychiatry and Director of the Psychopharmacology Clinic, Weill Cornell

Phil Galdston

Songwriter, producer, and Master Teacher in songwriting at NYU

Maria Garlock

Professor of civil and environmental engineering, Princeton University

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Author and Alfonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

Roberto G. Gonzales

Professor of sociology, Harvard University

Stephen Greenblatt

Harvard professor of English, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award

Brian Greene

Professor of physics, Columbia University

Maxine Greene

Educational philosopher, author, and teacher

Rinne Groff

Playwright and founding member of Elevator Repair Service

Mary Ellen Hannibal

Author and citizen scientist

Elizabeth Harman

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and Human Values, Princeton University

George Hart

Research professor at Stony Brook University and interdisciplinary sculptor, mathematician, computer scientist, and educator

Hazmat Modine

NYC American-roots band formed in late 1990s

Samuel D. Hodge, Jr.

Temple University professor in both law and medical schools

Roald Hoffmann

Nobel laureate and professor of chemistry, Cornell University

Bob Holman

Poet and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club

Sara Hook

Choreographer and professor of dance at the University of Illinois

Alexandra Horowitz

Author and professor of psychology, Barnard College

Amy Hungerford

Professor of English and Divisional Director of Humanities at Yale University

Bob Hurley, Sr.

Hall of Fame basketball coach

Kenneth T. Jackson

Author and professor of American history, Columbia University

Dale Jamison

Professor of environmental studies and philosophy, NYU

Shelly Kagan

Clark Professor of Philosophy, Yale University

Joshua Katz

Professor of classics, Princeton University

Brian Kernighan

Professor of computer science, Princeton University

Philip Kitcher

John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University

Dorothy Ko

Professor of history, Barnard College

Rebecca Kobrin

Professor of American Jewish history, Columbia University

The Kronos Quartet

American string quartet that specializes in contemporary and new music

Stephen Krupin

David Lang

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer

Charles Liu

Professor of astrophysics, CUNY Staten Island

Po-Shen Loh

Associate professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon and coach of the USA International Math Olympiad team

David Madigan

Executive Vice President and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of statistics, Columbia University

Taylor Mali

Four-time National Poetry Slam champion

Scott Manning Stevens

Director of the Native American Indigenous Studies Program, Syracuse University

Sharon Marcus

Professor of English, Columbia University

Alex Martin

Global writing chief at The Wall Street Journal

David McCullough

Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Bill McKibben

Writer, environmentalist, and climate change prophet

Daniel Menaker

Author and former editor-in-chief, Random House

Meredith Monk

Composer, singer, director, MacArthur “genius”

Bill Morrison

Filmmaker, Guggenheim Fellow

Bill Moyers

Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist

Khalil Muhammad

Professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School

Paul Muldoon

Princeton University professor in the humanities and Pulitzer Prize-winner