The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential female people in Education,
#251
Jean Sutherland Boggs
#47237
Overall Influence
1922 - 2014 (92 years)
Jean Sutherland Boggs was a Canadian academic, art historian and civil servant. She was the first female Director of both the National Gallery of Canada and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She was also a specialist in the work of Edgar Degas and Picasso.
Go to Profile#252
Juliane Rebentisch
#32502
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Juliane Rebentisch is a German philosopher and art historian whose research focuses on the history and politics of aesthetics. She is the author of three books: Aesthetics of Installation Art , The Art of Freedom: On the Dialectics of Democratic Existence , and Theorien der Gegenwartskunst , and has edited numerous volumes on aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy in both German and English. Josef Chytry, in the academic journal Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, called Aesthetics of Installation Art a "formidable work." In 2017, she received the Lessing Prize from the city of Ha...
Go to Profile#253
Priscilla Alderson
#135647
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
#254
Lorrie Shepard
#132986
Overall Influence
Lorrie A. Shepard is a University Distinguished Professor of research and evaluation methodology and former Dean of the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She joined the faculty of CU Boulder in 1974, and was named the dean of the School of Education there in 2001. She retired from her position as School of Education Dean in 2016, but remains a distinguished professor there. She has been the president of the National Academy of Education, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. She has also been editor-in-chief of the Journal of Educational Measurement and the American Educational Research Journal.
Go to Profile#255
Katja Terlau
#73787
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Katja Terlau is a German art historian and provenance researcher. She was a co-initiator and founding member of the international in Germany, founded in 2000 and is considered a pioneer of German , which she entered after the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art of 1998. Her main subject area is looted art; a number of museum holdings and large Jewish collections have been processed by her.
Go to Profile#256
Cordelia Candelaria
#64388
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Cordelia Chávez Candelaria is an American educator and writer of Hispanic descent. Early life and education Candelaria was born in Deming, New Mexico, to Ray J. Chávez and Eloida Trujillo. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fort Lewis College, where she studied English and French. She then earned a Master of Arts in English and a PhD in American literature and structural linguistics from the University of Notre Dame.
Go to Profile#257
Elizabeth Neilson
#50747
Overall Influence
1911 - 2001 (90 years)
Elizabeth A. Neilson, EDD was a prominent figure in the field of health education and a leader in promoting the wellness and holistic health perspectives in public health. She was born in West Medford, Massachusetts, the daughter of William and Anatasia Neilson. She graduated from Medford High School in Medford, Massachusetts. She then attended Boston Bouve College and Northeastern University. She graduated from Boston University with a doctorate in education.
Go to Profile#258
Lucienne Peiry
#70940
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Lucienne Peiry, born in Lausanne on 4 September 1961, holds a doctorate in the history of art; she is a specialist in Outsider Art , an exhibition curator, a lecturer and the author of several publications. She gives lectures in both Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe, and has been teaching Outsider Art at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne since 2010. Since 2016, she has also been teaching at the University of Lausanne
Go to Profile#259
Annie Sprinkle
#45334
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, and sex film producer and director. In 1996, she became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a PhD in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Identifying as ecosexual, Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornography, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle .
Go to Profile#260
Michelle Dickinson
#48673
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Michelle Emma Dickinson , also known as Nanogirl, is a nanotechnologist and science educator based in New Zealand. Early life and education Dickinson grew up in Hong Kong, the USA, and the United Kingdom. She had a grandmother from Malta, a grandfather who was English, and a Hong Kong Chinese mother. This may have heightened her awareness of cultural differences. Her father was an English-Maltese soldier.
Go to Profile#261
Elizabeth Edwards
#89339
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Elizabeth Jane Mary Edwards, is a visual and historical anthropologist. Career Born on 24 February 1952, Elizabeth Jane Mary Edwards is Professor Emerita of Photographic History at De Montfort University; Curator Emerita at Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford; Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford; and Honorary Professor in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. In 2017 she was appointed the Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Professor at the V&A Research Institute, London. Her focus of research is the relationship bet...
Go to Profile#262
Nancy Butler Songer
#64202
Overall Influence
Nancy Butler Songer is the Associate Provost of STEM Education at the University of Utah . Songer was a 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar with the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communication in Brazil. Songer was previously Dean of the School of Education at Drexel University and the University of Utah. Songer was a Professor of Science Education and Learning Technologies at The University of Michigan for 18 years . Songer received a Presidential Faculty Fellow Award from President William J. Clinton in 1995. Her work focuses on the design of educational innovations for promoting ...
Go to Profile#263
Tina Besley
#109406
Overall Influence
Athlone Christine Besley is an education academic. Education With degrees from University of Canterbury, Christchurch Teachers' College, and Massey University, Besley has a PhD in Education in 2001 from University of Auckland titled Self, identity, adolescence and the professionalisation of school counselling in New Zealand: a Foucauldian-inspired approach.
Go to Profile#264
Sibel Erduran
#140495
Overall Influence
#265
Elaine Macmann Willoughby
#114598
Overall Influence
1926 - 2012 (86 years)
Elaine Macmann "Mac" Willoughby was an American educator and writer of children's books. Life Elaine Maybelle Macmann, known as "Mac", was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, and was the only child of Walter and Mabel Macmann. She received a B.S. of Education from Wheelock College, graduating in 1949 as vice-president of her class. In the summer of 1951 she also attended the University of Rhode Island, and in the summer of 1953 attended the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College. She received her MA and PhD in Education from the Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1954 to 195...
Go to Profile#266
Becky Wai-Ling Packard
#87221
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Becky Wai-Ling Packard is Professor of Psychology and Education, and former Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership, Associate Dean of Faculty, and Founding Director of Teaching and Learning at Mount Holyoke College.
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Gloria Bonilla-Santiago
#92232
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Gloria Bonilla-Santiago is a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor at the Department of Public Policy and Administration and Director of the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership at Rutgers University–Camden. She is also the founder of Leadership, Education, and Partnership Academy University Charter School located in Camden, New Jersey. Created in 1997, LEAP is one of the 17 inaugural public charter schools in New Jersey. As the founder of LEAP, Bonilla-Santiago created a merit pay/pay-for-performance program designed to reward excellence in teaching and improve stud...
Go to Profile#268
Barbara Knowles Debs
#76936
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (93 years)
Barbara Knowles Debs is an American art historian who was the president of Manhattanville College from 1975 to 1985. She was the president of the New-York Historical Society from 1989 to 1992. She serves on the board of directors of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Foreign Policy Association and the Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Foundation.
Go to Profile#269
Agnes Mongan
#40015
Overall Influence
1905 - 1996 (91 years)
Agnes Mongan was an American art historian, who served as a curator and director for the Harvard Art Museums. Career Mongan received her B.A. in 1927 from Bryn Mawr College with a degree art history and English literature. She subsequently attended Smith College, where she studied Italian art and received her A.M. in 1929. Following a short internship at the Fogg Art Museum in 1928, she was hired as a research assistant for associate director Paul J. Sachs, where she remained until 1937. From 1937 to 1947, she was promoted to new a position titled "Keeper of Drawings," since women were not allowed to be named curators.
Go to Profile#270
Samella Lewis
#59184
Overall Influence
1924 - 2022 (98 years)
Samella Sanders Lewis was an American visual artist and art historian. She worked primarily as a printmaker and painter. She has been called the "Godmother of African American Art". She received Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association in 2021.
Go to Profile#271
Vidya Dehejia
#36123
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Vidya Dehejia is a retired academic and the Barbara Stoler Miller Professor Emerita of Indian and South Asian Art at Columbia University. She has published 24 books and numerous academic papers on the art of South Asia, and has curated many exhibitions on the same theme.
Go to Profile#272
Claire Renkin
#114767
Overall Influence
Claire Renkin is an Australian art historian and academic who has had a distinguished career as a scholar specialising in the areas of art history and spirituality. Education Renkin studied English and a little art history at university, before working as a teacher in Melbourne. She later moved to the United States where she completed a Masters in Art History at the University of Massachusetts. In 1998, Renkin went on to complete her PhD in Art History at the University of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Go to Profile#273
Esther Pasztory
#52036
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Esther Pasztory is a professor emerita of Pre-Columbian art history at Columbia University. From 1997 to her retirement in 2013 she held the Lisa and Bernard Selz Chair in Art History and Archaeology. Among her many publications are the first art historical manuscripts on Teotihuacan and the Aztecs. She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a senior fellow of the board of Dumbarton Oaks.
Go to Profile#274
Tisa Mason
#74329
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Tisa A. Mason is an American educator and the current president of Fort Hays State University. Prior to her presidency at Fort Hays State, Mason served as Valley City State University's president from December 15, 2014 to December 15, 2017. Mason served as Fort Hays State's vice president of student affairs July 2008 to December 2014.
Go to Profile#275
Judy L. Bonner
#93910
Overall Influence
Judy L. Bonner is an American academic who served as president of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from 2012 to 2015. Early life and education Judy L. Bonner was born in Wilcox County, Alabama. She graduated from the University of Alabama, where she received bachelor's and master's degrees. She received a PhD in Nutrition from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Go to Profile#276
Karen L. Gould
#62051
Overall Influence
1948 - 2012 (64 years)
Karen L. Gould is a scholar of French-Canadian literature, and an academic administrator who has been a dean at Old Dominion University and the University of Cincinnati, provost and senior vice president at California State University, Long Beach, and the ninth president of Brooklyn College, the first woman to hold that position.
Go to Profile#277
Felicia F. Campbell
#51921
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Felicia Florine Campbell, Ph.D. was an American academic. She was Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 2012, she became the longest serving faculty member in the university's history. Campbell was president of the Popular Culture Association.
Go to Profile#278
Gilah Leder
#93240
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Gilah Chaja Leder is an adjunct professor at Monash University and a professor emerita at La Trobe University. Her research interests are in mathematics education, gender, affect, and exceptionality. Leder was the 2009 recipient of the Felix Klein Medal.
Go to Profile#279
Diane Ghirardo
#85743
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Diane Ghirardo is a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California. She is also the author of several books and essays on architectural history and theory. Her translation of The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi into English was first published in 1982.
Go to Profile#280
Helen May
#121145
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Helen May is a New Zealand education pioneer. She has been an eloquent activist and academic in education, with a strong feminist focus on early childhood education. Her advocacy has been characterised by its focus on the rights and needs of children and teachers, expressed by an active and collaborative engagement with educational institutions, trade unions, the Ministry of Education and other government agencies.
Go to Profile#281
Jessica Rawson
#33172
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Dame Jessica Mary Rawson, is an English art historian, curator and sinologist. She is also an academic administrator, specialising in Chinese art. After many years at the British Museum, she was Warden of Merton College, Oxford, from 1994 until her retirement in 2010. She served as pro-vice-chancellor at University of Oxford from 2006 for a term of five years.
Go to Profile#282
Sally Rogow
#65909
Overall Influence
1930 - 2012 (82 years)
Sally Rogow was an American educator who developed programs to assist other teachers in schooling the visually impaired. After completing her education with a bachelor's and two master's degrees in the United States, as well as a teaching stint at the Michigan School for the Blind, Rogow moved to Canada where she earned a doctorate in special education. She was hired by the University of British Columbia to develop a normal school program for educators of those with multiple handicaps or visual impairment. Launching the program in 1971, Rogow directed it until 1995, publishing numerous works ...
Go to Profile#283
Mary Godfrey
#50853
Overall Influence
1913 - 2007 (94 years)
Mary Emmeline Godfrey was an artist and art educator who became the first full-time African-American faculty member at Penn State University. She was hired in 1957 and served as an assistant professor of art education until her retirement in 1979.
Go to Profile#284
Thyrza Nichols Goodeve
#32889
Overall Influence
Thyrza Nichols Goodeve is a writer, interviewer, artist, and teacher active in the field of contemporary art and culture. Biography Goodeve was born in Middlebury, Connecticut, where she lived until her family moved to Windham, Vermont. Her brother is actor Grant Goodeve. Her maternal great-great-grandfather was the Vermont politician and Union Army Colonel William T. Nichols, while her paternal great-great-grandfather was Orvil Grant, a younger brother of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. She attended the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut and Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#285
Jenny Odell
#40612
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (38 years)
Jenny Odell is an American multidisciplinary artist, writer, and educator based in Oakland, California. She taught Internet art and digital/physical design at Stanford University from 2013 to 2021. She wrote The New York Times best-selling book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy .
Go to Profile#286
Val Williams
#55782
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Val Williams is a British curator and author who has become an authority on British photography. She is the Professor of the History and Culture of Photography at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London, and was formerly the Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Hasselblad Center.
Go to Profile#287
Maryanne Confoy
#115664
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Maryanne P. Confoy RSC is an Australian religious Sister of Charity who has also been a teacher and scholar, working primarily in the areas of ministry and spirituality. Early life and education Maryanne Confoy was born on 15 April 1944. She joined the Sisters of Charity in Australia, an order established by Mary Aikenhead and whose members have been working in education, health and community care since they first arrived in Australia in 1838. Confoy completed a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne and went on to further postgraduate studies at Boston College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Go to Profile#288
Caroline Homer
#128373
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Caroline Susan E. Homer is an Australian midwifery researcher and international advocate for women's health rights. She is Co-Program Director, Maternal and Child Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne and Visiting Distinguished Professor of Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney.
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Dorothy Hollingsworth
#124958
Overall Influence
1920 - Present (104 years)
Dorothy L. Hollingsworth was an American educator based in Seattle. Hollingsworth was born on October 29, 1920, in Bishopville, South Carolina. Her family moved to North Carolina when she was young. She graduated from Paine College in 1941. In 1946 she moved to Seattle with her husband. She worked as a social worker in Seattle's Central District in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Natalie Carter Barraga
#64876
Overall Influence
1915 - 2014 (99 years)
Natalie Carter Barraga was an American educator and researcher who studied visual impairment, recognized for contributions to the education of children with low vision. Early life Barraga was born on October 10, 1915, in Troy, Texas. In college she initially studied home economics and child development, receiving her bachelor's in 1938 from the North Texas State Teacher's College, University of North Texas. She then earned a Master's in education from University of Texas in Austin, followed by an EdD from George Peabody College for Teachers in special education for the visually impaired. Init...
Go to Profile#291
Diana Coben
#131360
Overall Influence
Diana Coben is an adult education academic, and visiting professor of the University of East Anglia. Between 2011 and 2018 she was Director of New Zealand's National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults and full professor at University of Waikato.
Go to Profile#292
Jasleen Dhamija
#54648
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Jasleen Dhamija was an Indian textile art historian, crafts expert and former UN worker. Based in Delhi, she was best known for her pioneering research on the handloom and handicraft industry, especially history of textiles and costumes. She was professor of living cultural traditions at the University of Minnesota. Over the years, during her career as a textile revivalist and scholar, she authored several books on textiles, including Sacred Textiles of India .
Go to Profile#293
Henrietta Mann
#86535
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Henrietta Mann (Cheyenne, b. 1934) is a Native American academic and activist. She was one of the designers of the Native American studies programs at University of California, Berkeley, the University of Montana and Haskell Indian Nations University. In 2000 she became the first American Indian to hold the endowed chair of Native American studies at Montana State University and was honored with the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award. She retired in 2004 and became a special advisor to the president of Montana State University. In 1970, Mann completed her master’s degree in English literature...
Go to Profile#294
Mary Jo Watson
#64891
Overall Influence
Mary Jo Watson is a Seminole art historian and director emeritus and a regents professor at the School of Art and Art History at the University of Oklahoma. Her work focuses on the theory and development of teaching methodology for Native American art.
Go to Profile#295
Okhee Lee
#70551
Overall Influence
Okhee Lee is an American education scholar and professor of childhood education. Career Okhee Lee is a professor of childhood education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Lee is involved in establishing equity in the education of STEM and computational thinking for all K-12 students, including students learning English as an additional language, referred to as English learners by the U.S. Department of Education. She is an author of five books and more than 100 refereed journal articles on educational research, policy and practice.
Go to Profile#296
Eeva Leinonen
#88334
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Eeva Kaarina Leinonen is a Finnish educator and educational administrator. Since 1 October 2021, she has been president of Maynooth University in Ireland, having previously headed Murdoch University in Australia.
Go to Profile#297
Miwon Kwon
#74108
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Miwon Kwon is a Korean curator and art history educator. Her work focuses on contemporary art, land art and site-specific art. She has curated several exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and most recently she co-curated the exhibition Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles with Philipp Kaiser. She began her position in the Art History Department at UCLA in 1998, where she currently maintains her tenure as the department chair.
Go to Profile#298
Joan Stringer
#87036
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Professor Dame Joan Kathleen Stringer, DBE, FRSE, FRSA is a British political scientist and former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#299
Shirley Neilsen Blum
#57367
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Shirley Neilsen Blum, also known as Shirley Hopps is an American art historian, author, gallerist, and professor emeritus at the State University of New York, Purchase . She specializes in Northern Renaissance art, early Netherlandish art, and modern art. In the 1950s through the 1960s, she was active in the Los Angeles gallery scene, and she co-founded and co-ran Ferus Gallery.
Go to Profile#300
Patricia Wasley
#115085
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Patricia Wasley, EdD, is the Chief Executive Officer at Teaching Channel and is responsible for setting the educational direction of the website. Prior to joining Teaching Channel, Dr. Wasley was dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington from 2000 to 2012. Wasley has conducted a variety of research on student voice, teacher education and whole-school reform. She is the author of several books on school reform, including Teachers Who Lead and Stirring the Chalkdust, and is the co-author of Kids and School Reform.
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