9 Notable alumni of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Updated: June 12, 2026 EliteDegrees
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is ranked #5,710 in the world and #1,490 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 9 notable alumni from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Cheyney University of Pennsylvania won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Pedro Rivera
teacher
Pedro A. Rivera is the former Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, having been nominated by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and confirmed in June 2015. Previously, he served as superintendent of the School District of Lancaster. Starting October 1, 2020, he began a new role as President of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. A Philadelphia native, Rivera spent 13 years at the...
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2. Ronald S. Coleman
1948-. (aged 78)
military officer
Ronald S. Coleman is a former United States Marine Corps officer. Coleman, advanced in rank to lieutenant general on October 27, 2006, became the second African-American in the Marine Corps to reach the 3-star rank.
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3. Thaddeus Kirkland
1955-. (aged 71)
politician
Thaddeus Kirkland is an American politician who served as the Democratic Mayor of Chester, Pennsylvania from 2016 to 2024. In May 2023, he lost the Democratic mayoral primary to Stefan Roots. He served as a Democratic member of the 159th district from 1993 to 2016.
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4. Levy Lee Simon
writer
Levy Lee Simon is an American playwright, actor, director and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his trilogy about the struggle for Haitian independence, For the Love of Freedom.
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5. Octavius Catto
1839-1871 (aged 32)
activist
Octavius Valentine Catto was an American educator, intellectual, and civil rights activist. He became principal of male students at the Institute for Colored Youth, where he had also been educated. Born free in Charleston, South Carolina, in a prominent mixed-race family, he moved north as a boy with his family. After completing his education, he went into teaching, and became...
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6. Julian Abele
1881-1950 (aged 69)
architect
Julian Francis Abele was a prominent Black American architect, and chief designer in the offices of Horace Trumbauer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Abele contributed to the design of more than 400 buildings, including Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University (1912–15), Philadelphia's Central Library (1917–27), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1914–28).
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7. Rebecca Cole
1846-1922 (aged 76)
physician
Rebecca J. Cole was an American physician, organization founder and social reformer. In 1867, she became the second African-American woman to become a doctor in the United States, after Rebecca Lee Crumpler three years earlier. Throughout her life she faced racial and gender-based barriers to her medical education, training in all-female institutions which were run by the first generation of...
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8. Robert Woodson
1937-. (aged 89)
social worker
Robert Leon Woodson Sr. is an American civil rights activist, community development leader, author, and founder and president of the Woodson Center, a non-profit research and demonstration organization that supports neighborhood-based initiatives to revitalize low-income communities.
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9. Jim Vance
1942-2017 (aged 75)
journalist
James Howard Vance III was an American television news presenter in Washington, D.C.