Carol S. Ostrow ’77, P’09, ’15

AB, MFA; New York, New York

A portrait of Carol Ostrow ’77, a person with shoulder-length brown hair in bangs and a white floral shirt.

Carol Ostrow is an Obie and Drama Desk award winning producer and the founder of Stop The Wind Theatricals, an independent production company dedicated to the development of new work for the American theater.

Ostrow began her producing career at Vassar, where she developed and founded the Powerhouse Theater, now in its 40th season. She went on to become the producing director of the award-winning Classic Stage Company, where she produced Sigourney Weaver and other notable artists in reimaginings of the classics. In the wake of 9/11, Ostrow became the producing director of The Flea, where she produced over 100 world premieres, including plays by A.R. Gurney, Elizabeth Swados, Will Eno, Thomas Bradshaw, Adam Rapp, Taylor Mac and Mac Wellman, amongst others. While producing at The Flea, she spearheaded the construction of a three-theater performing arts complex in Lower Manhattan. Carol has also been an adjunct professor of theater at Vassar College, Chatham College and McGill University.

Concurrently, Ostrow has dedicated her time and vision to an array of not-for-profit institutions. She is proud and humbled to be the current chair of the National Psoriasis Foundation, the world’s leading nonprofit organization serving people affected by psoriatic disease. She has served on the board since 2015 and is galvanized to lead the organization with the launch of a new strategic plan and a new vision under a newly appointed CEO.

My six-word story
“Grew up. Star struck. It stuck.”

Ostrow holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College, where she chairs the development committee and co-chairs the $500 million capital campaign Fearlessly Consequential. She also serves on the David Geffen Yale School of Drama Board of Advisors and is a new board member of The New Group, the award-winning, artist-driven off-Broadway company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater.

Ostrow is a member of the board of the Sag Harbor Partnership, a working civic organization dedicated to preserving the natural, historic and cultural life of this unique American village. Carol is also a past trustee and the current co-chair of the Emeritus Trustees of Central Synagogue, one of the largest and most vibrant synagogues in North America. Carol is married to Michael Graff, a managing director at Warburg Pincus, LLC. They have four adult children: daughters Anabel, a writer; Emily, an editor; Candace, a public defender; and son, Jesse, a strategic analyst in finance. She and her family count Pittsburgh, London, Montreal and New York City once again, as home.