Association with the Presidential Scholars program lasts far beyond the medallion ceremony in Washington, D.C. It is a lifelong honor that
combines ongoing friendships built during National Recognition Week with a supportive alumni community that stretches across over 40 classes of scholars throughout the nation and the world.

Presidential Scholars have become CEOs, professors, artists, stage & screen stars, leading medical doctors, world-renowned scientists, award-winning journalists, successful attorneys, and community leaders. Scholars have written hundreds of books and been granted countless patents. Our alumni have also been honored with fellowships, awards, and prizes such as the Pulitzer Prize, Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, and Fulbright grant.

Below, find a sampling of profiles of some of our distinguished alumni.

	Richard Alley - 1976 Scholar As a high school student in Worthington, Ohio, Richard Alley enjoyed both his English and science classes. Since being named one of Ohio's Presidential Scholars in 1976, he has combined these loves as a distinguished professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. Alley is one of the world's leading climate scientists. His renowned research using Greenland ice cores has revolutionized our understanding of abrupt climate change, a subject popularized in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." Alley's acclaimed book on abrupt climate change, "The Two-Mile Time Machine," won the 2001 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science. He is also the winner of numerous teaching, research and professional awards - most recently, the American Geophysical Union's 2007 Roger Revelle medal, which recognizes "outstanding contributions in atmospheric sciences ... climate, or related aspects of the Earth system." (Photo taken by PhD student Todd Johnston, Matanuska Glacier, Alaska.)
	Donald S. Beyer Jr. - 1968 Scholar Named a Presidential Scholar in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson, Donald S. Beyer Jr. is the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Mr. Beyer is a Virginia business and community leader, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia for eight years. He has spent most of his adult life building a profitable and community-based collection of retail automobile dealerships, and has served at the highest levels in the industry, including as Chairman of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, and Chairman of the National Volvo Dealer Council. Don Beyer has long believed that business leaders have a responsibility to give back to their communities. Since 1995 he has chaired Jobs for Virginia Graduates, a high school dropout prevention program in the state. He is the founding Chairman of the Alexandria Community Trust, Alexandria’s community foundation. For three years, 2000-2002, Mr. Beyer was President of Youth for Tomorrow, and he currently serves as a member of the board of the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
	Mitch Daniels - 1967 Scholar Perhaps when Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels visited the White House as a 1967 Presidential Scholar from Indiana, it whetted his appetite for a political career. After earning a bachelor's degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and then his J.D. from Georgetown Law School, Daniels served as a senior advisor to President Reagan, worked as a senior executive at Eli Lilly and Company, and was eventually appointed head of the Office of Management and Budget, where President George W. Bush nicknamed him "The Blade" for his commitment to protect tax-payers from excessive government spending. In 2003 Daniels resigned to return to Indiana and run - successfully - for Governor.
	Suzette Charles DeGaetano - 1981 Scholar Just three years after being named New Jersey's Presidential Scholar in 1981, Suzette Charles DeGaetano claimed another national honor - the title of Miss America 1984. An accomplished singer who had appeared in commercials and educational TV programs, Charles swept the talent competition. After her service touring the nation as Miss America, Charles continued her musical career, performing with Bill Cosby, Stevie Wonder, Lou Rawls, Alan King, and Joel Grey.
	Rita Dove - 1970 Scholar When poet Rita Dove was named Ohio's Presidential Scholar in 1970, she surely didn't know it was only the first of many national academic and literary honors. She served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and was reappointed Special Consultant in Poetry for 1999/2000. She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the 1996 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities, the 1996 National Humanities Medal, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award in the Literary Arts, and the 2006 Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service. Rita Dove lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband Fred Viebahn and her daughter Aviva.
	Kristin Forbes – 1988 Scholar In 1988, Kristin Forbes was honored by President Reagan as New Hampshire’s Presidential Scholar; in 2003, she returned to Washington as President Bush’s appointee to the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), and its youngest member ever. Previously, at age 30, she’d served as the U.S. Treasury Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Quantitative Policy Analysis and Latin American and Caribbean Nations. After two years on the CEA, Dr. Forbes returned to her full-time post as associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. This economist is the author of numerous articles and co-editor of the book, “International Financial Contagion”. In 2005 Forbes was named a "Young Global Leader" as part of the World Economic Forum at Davos.
	Sallie Krawcheck - 1983 Scholar In 1983, Sallie Krawcheck was named South Carolina’s Presidential Scholar; in 2004 Fortune.com ranked her seventh among the 10 most powerful women in business. Krawcheck became one of the top research analysts covering Wall Street during her tenure as CEO at the independent research firm Sanford C. Bernstein, where she earned a reputation as a vocal advocate of research quality and integrity. She was later recruited by financial-services firm Citigroup to head Smith Barney, which handles stock-research and retail-brokerages operations, before being tapped as Citigroup's Citigroup Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy. After three years in that position, she served as Chairman and CEO for Citi Global Wealth Management until her departure from the firm late in 2008.
	Amory Lovins - 1964 Scholar Physicist Amory Lovins, a Massachusetts Scholar from the Program’s inaugural year, is cofounder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute and Chairman Emeritus of Fiberforge, Inc. Published in 29 books and hundreds of papers, his work has been recognized by the “Alternative Nobel,” Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, nine honorary doctorates, honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Jean Meyer, World Technology, and TIME “Hero for the Planet” Awards. Lauded by Newsweek as “one of the Western world's most influential energy thinkers,” Dr. Lovins advises governments and major firms worldwide on advanced energy and resource efficiency, and has led the technical redesign of $30 billion worth of facilities in 29 sectors to achieve very large energy savings at typically lower capital cost. In 2008, U.S. News & World Report named him one of “America's Best Leaders.”
	Bruce Reed - 1978 Scholar Perhaps Bruce Reed, President of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), already had plans to change the American political landscape when he traveled to Washington as one of Idaho’s Presidential Scholars. A graduate of Princeton and Oxford, and a Rhodes Scholar, Reed served as chief speechwriter for Senator Al Gore from 1985-1989, and later helped to launch the New Democratic movement as policy director for the DLC. In 1992, he was deputy manager for policy of the Clinton-Gore campaign, and oversaw development of the domestic, economic, and foreign policy positions. Mr. Reed then served for eight years in the Clinton-Gore White House. As the President's chief domestic policy advisor and director of the Domestic Policy Council he developed and managed the administration's agenda on welfare reform, crime, education, tobacco, and other domestic issues. In 2001, Reed returned to lead the DLC. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The Economist, and he is founding editor of the DLC magazine, The New Democrat.
	Desmond Richardson - 1986 Scholar Just eight years after he took the stage at the Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholar from New York, the New York Times hailed Desmond Richardson as “one of the great modern dancers of his time.” Richardson served as a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Frankfurt Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre, creating the title role in the world premiere of “Othello.” This master of dance forms from classical to contemporary has performed with the Swedish Opera Ballet, the Washington Ballet, Teatro alla Scala, and the San Francisco Ballet. Broadway credits include “The Look of Love,” “Movin’ Out,” and “Fosse,” for which he earned a 1999 Tony Award nomination. TV, video and film appearances with talents like Michael Jackson, Prince, Elton John, Madonna, and Aretha Franklin include 2002’s Oscar-winning hit “Chicago.” Co-Founder/ Co-Artistic Director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Richardson also teaches dance throughout the U.S. and abroad.
	Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt, III - 1989 Scholar It must have seemed like destiny when this great-great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt was named a Presidential Scholar from the District of Columbia. Kim Roosevelt's academic star continued to rise through undergraduate studies at Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation, he clerked for D.C. Circuit Judge Stephen F. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. After working at the Chicago law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt, Roosevelt joined the University of Pennsylvania Law faculty in 2002. This legal scholar, professor and author is an expert on conflict of laws, constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and law and technology, and has served since 1998 as a member of the Human Rights Advisory Board for Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. His latest book, "The Myth of Judicial Activism: Making Sense of Supreme Court Decisions", sets out standards by which citizens can determine whether the Supreme Court is abusing its authority. He is also the author of a novel, "In the Shadow of the Law.
	Charles E. Shepard - 1972 Scholar The Presidential Scholars program seeks out and rewards academic rigor, and journalist Charles Shepard was honored for this as Connecticut's Scholar in 1972. As a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, Shepard tirelessly investigated and reported on televangelist Jim Bakker's misuse of funds and deceptive practices, even as the PTL television ministry sought to discredit his work and pressure his newspaper to remain silent. As a result of Shepard's reporting, Bakker and three associates were imprisoned for fraud, and in 1988 the Observer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service. The next year Shepard published "Forgiven: The Rise and Fall of Jim Bakker and the PTL Ministry," a biography of Bakker.
	Srinija Srinivasan - 1989 Scholar A 1989 Kansas Scholar, Srinija Srinivasan guides the “voice of Yahoo!” throughout Yahoo!’s global online network. Since joining the company as its fifth employee in 1995, Srinivasan has led a range of editorial and policy functions, beginning with the organization and evolution of the Yahoo! directory. Today, as Vice President, Editor in Chief, her responsibilities include overseeing editorial and content standards across the network, leading the social responsibility arm of the company, and directing policy issues including privacy and data use, youth safety, and accessibility. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Srinivasan was involved with the Cyc Project, a ten-year artificial intelligence effort to build an immense database of human commonsense knowledge. She chairs the board of directors for SFJAZZ (sfjazz.org), and she was a 2000 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She holds a B.S. with distinction from Stanford University in Symbolic Systems, and lives bicoastally in Palo Alto, CA and New York City.