Notable Nebraska Alumni
Nebraska is the alma mater of people who have made — and are still making — an impact in industries ranging from literature, art, business, tech, legislation and beyond. Meet a few of them.
Johnny Carson
One of television’s best known personalities, Johnny Carson is often called “the king of late night.” In 1962, he became the host of “The Tonight Show” for an Emmy Award-winning run that lasted three decades. Gifts from the Johnny Carson Foundation have supported the development of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is an author, cultural critic and Nebraska English alumna. Among her works is the New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist. She recently penned a comic series for Marvel in the Black Panther universe called World of Wakanda.
Warren Buffett
Born in Nebraska, Warren Buffett graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a degree in business administration. He would go on to become the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is considered to be one of the most successful investors in the world. He also lends his wealth to charitable causes and foundations, including the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation which, among other things, provides scholarships to Nebraska students.
Beverly Deepe Keever
With dual majors in journalism and political science, Beverly Deepe Keever went on to become the first female war correspondent during the Vietnam War. Her seven-year term covering the Vietnam War was also longer than any other American correspondent as of that time. Her reporting was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 and she was inducted into the Nebraska Women Journalists Hall of Fame in 2015.
Aaron Douglas
1922 Nebraska graduate Aaron Douglas was a painter, illustrator and visual arts educator. He was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance and created art that addressed social issues around race and segregation in the United States. Douglas encouraged other young, black artists to enter the public arts in his involvement with the Harlem Arts Guild and in co-founding Fire!! A Quarterly Journal Devoted to the Younger Negro Artists.
Ev Williams
Ev Williams is the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter and founder and CEO of Medium. He returned to campus in May 2017 to deliver the undergraduate commencement address, sharing his journey from Nebraska farm kid to a successful internet entrepreneur.
Willa Cather
Willa Cather was a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who often drew influence from frontier life and the immigrants of the plains who made up forty-three percent of the state population by 1890. Today the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is home to the Cather Archive, which works to create a rich, useful, and widely accessible site for the study of Willa Cather’s life and writings.
Patsy Mink
Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink was the first non-white woman and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She introduced the first comprehensive Early Childhood Education Act and authored the Women’s Educational Equality Act, landmark laws that advanced equal rights in the United States.
The Abbott Sisters
Edith and Grace Abbott were Nebraska graduates who devoted their lives to humanitarian efforts. Both were deeply concerned with nurturing the next generation of students through social work and justice. Edith saw her work as a combination of legal studies and humanitarian work while Grace specifically worked in improving the rights of immigrants and advancing child welfare, especially the regulation of child labor.
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