This is a list of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania faculty.
| Name | Department | Notability | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| William "Billy" Joe | former NFL and AFL player and College Football Hall of Fame coach | ||
| John Chaney | 1972-82 Hall of fame basketball coach | ||
| C. Vivian Stringer | 1972-83 Hall of fame basketball coach | ||
| Fanny Jackson Coppin | The first African American woman to become a school principal. In her 37 years at the Institute for Colored Youth, Fanny Jackson was responsible for vast educational improvements in Philadelphia. | ||
| Octavius Catto | After graduating from the Institute Catto taught here briefly. Catto was the class valedictorian in 1858 at the Institute for Colored Youth. An activist, Catto was influential in getting the 15th Amendment passed in 1870 which gave black men the right to vote. Catto is also the founder of the first black baseball team in the United States (The Pythians, 1867) and the Equal Rights League (Oct. 1864). | ||
| Edythe Scott Bagley | founder of the theater department sibling of Coretta Scott King. | ||
| Charles L. Reason | first principal A prolific writer, Reason wrote political journalism as well as poetry. His most noted poems are “Freedom” “The Spirit Voice” and “Silent Thoughts.” Charles L. Reason died in 1893. | ||
| Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett | Second principal and the first African American diplomat for America. | ||
| Richard T. Greener | 1870 hired first African American Harvard University graduate. | ||
| Edward Bouchet | 1876 hired first African American Yale University doctoral graduate | ||
| William Adger | 1883, first African American University of Pennsylvania baccalaureate degree graduate | ||
| Laura Wheeler Waring | 1908 hired. Artist and art/music teacher. World renowned artist | ||
| Leslie P. Hill | 1913 to 1951, fifth and final principal, first president of Cheyney. | ||
| Mary Jane Patterson | 1862 to 1869, Patterson was the first African American woman to receive a bachelor's degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. Upon receiving her degree she went to Philadelphia where she taught at ICY for seven years. In 1869 she moved to Washington, D.C. to teach and in 1871 became the first black principal of the newly-established Preparatory High School for Negroes, later renamed Dunbar High School. | ||
| Michelle R. Howard-Vital, Ph.D. | 2007 Sworn in as first female presidentof the university (Fanny Jackson Coppin, who curiously has the same birthday as Dr. Howard-Vital) was the first female principal in the earlier Institute for Colored Youth |