List of University of Pennsylvania academics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Penn alumni are the (a) founders of a number of colleges, as well as eight medical schools including New York University Medical School and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and (b) current or past presidents of over one hundred (100) universities and colleges including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Cornell University, University of California system, University of Texas system, Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, Bowdoin College and Williams College.
- Cyrus Adler: chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary; president, Dropsie College
- Reuven Amitai: dean of the faculty of humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2012– )
- John Andrews, D.D.: clergyman; 4th provost of University of Pennsylvania (1810–1813); founder of York College of Pennsylvania
- Tamar Ariav: Israeli president of Beit Berl College
- Robert L. Barchi: 20th president of Rutgers University; past president of Thomas Jefferson University
- John Milton Bernhisel: original trustee of the University of Utah
- William Bingham: banker and politician who was highly influential in the founding of Dickinson College; "Bingham's Porch" was long a rallying cry at Dickinson
- James Lloyd Breck, Class of 1838: founder of the Seabury Divinity School, now part of the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, a prominent Episcopal seminary; namesake of the Breck School in Minneapolis
- Mark Burstein: president of Lawrence University (2013– )
- Alison Byerly: 12th president of Carleton College (2021- ); first female president of Lafayette College (2013–21)
- Gaylen Byker: president of Calvin College (1995–2012)
- Charles Caldwell (Penn Med Class of 1796): with Penn alumni John Esteen Cooke and Charles Wilkins Short (Penn Med Class of 1815), organized the Louisville (Kentucky) Medical Institute (now the University of Louisville School of Medicine); Caldwell served as first dean (1837–1838)[1]
- William P. Carey: namesake and benefactor of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
- Kimberly Wright Cassidy: 9th president of Bryn Mawr College
- Jared Cohon: president of Carnegie Mellon University (1997–2013)
- Al-Hassan Conteh: president of the University of Liberia
- Lee Copeland: former dean of the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the University of Pennsylvania School of Design
- Robert A. Corrigan: president of San Francisco State University (1988– ); past chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities
- Mary Cullinan: president, Eastern Washington University; past president of Southern Oregon University (2006–14)
- Edward Cutbush: founder of Geneva Medical College (now State University of New York Upstate Medical University), and first dean (1834–1839)
- Robert Davidson, Class of 1771: president of Dickinson College (1804–09)
- Samuel Henry Dickson: with alumnus John Edwards Holbrook, co-founded the Medical College of South Carolina (now the Medical University of South Carolina)
- Paul A. Dodd: president of San Francisco State University (1962–66); dean of the UCLA College of Letters and Science (1946–61); namesake of Dodd Hall on UCLA's campus
- Harold Dodds: fifteenth president of Princeton University (1933–1957)
- Daniel Drake: organized the Medical College of Ohio and Cincinnati College; both later became the University of Cincinnati
- John W. Draper: founder and president of New York University Medical School (1850–73), and founding president of the American Chemical Society
- Thomas Messinger Drown: 4th president of Lehigh University (namesake of Drown Hall on Lehigh's campus)
- Arnold Eisen: chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary
- Patrick Ellis: president, The Catholic University of America (1992–98); president, La Salle University (1977–92)
- Joseph Esherick: co-founder of the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design
- Michael Fitts: American legal scholar, former dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School for 14 years and is the current president of Tulane University[2] in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Judge Rene H. Himel Professor of Law at the Tulane School of Law.[3]
- Drew Gilpin Faust: president, Harvard University (2007-2018) (first non-Harvard alum in over 300 years)
- Happy Fernandez: past president of the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia
- Richard M. Freeland: president of Northeastern University (1996–2006)
- Vernon F. Gallagher: 8th president of Duquesne University (1950–59)
- Thomas Sovereign Gates: president of the University of Pennsylvania (1930–44)
- Francis J. Gavin: Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.
- Henry D. Gilpin: president, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1853–58)
- Michael Glick: dean of the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine
- Israel Goldstein: co-founder and first chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University
- Neil R. Grabois: president, Colgate University
- Frank Hastings Hamilton: One of the founders of Buffalo Medical College (now the State University of New York at Buffalo)
- Patrick T. Harker: president, University of Delaware
- Earl G. Harrison: dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Commissioner of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1942–44
- Chester David Hartranft: president, Hartford Theological Seminary (1888–1903)
- Peyton R. Helm: president of Muhlenberg College (2003–15)
- Joel Henry Hildebrand, Class of 1903: past dean of the college of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley; namesake of Hildebrand Hall on Berkeley's campus; namesake of the Joel Henry Hildebrand Award sponsored by the American Chemical Society
- John Henry Hobart: founder, Geneva College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges)
- Elizabeth Hoffman: provost and executive vice president, Iowa State University; president, University of Colorado System (2000–2005)
- Jerome H. Holland: president of Delaware State College (1953–59)
- Robert C. Holub: chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2008– ); past undergraduate dean, College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Berkeley
- Joseph Hopkinson: president, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; served as successful counsel for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in his impeachment trial before the United States Senate in 1804 and 1805
- Jon Huntsman Sr.: namesake and benefactor of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University
- Ralph Cooper Hutchinson: 7th president of Washington & Jefferson College; 12th president of Lafayette College
- Sir Paul Judge: namesake and benefactor of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge
- Naamah Kelman:Rabbi, dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campus in Jerusalem
- Raynard S. Kington: president of Grinnell College (2010– )
- Jared Potter Kirtland: studied at Penn and ultimately received his degree from Yale University; co-founder of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
- Richard Kneedler: president Emeritus of Franklin and Marshall College
- Michael Kotlikoff BA (College class of 1973), D.V.M. (Penn Vet class of 1981: provost and acting president (2016) interim president (July of 2024 - February of 2025) president (as of March 21, 2025) Cornell University.[4][5]
- Richard W. Lariviere: president, University of Oregon (2009–11)
- Patrick F. Leahy (Doctor of Philosophy from School of Education),[6] 10th president of Monmouth University[7] and formerly sixth president of Wilkes University from 2012 to 2019.[8][9] Since 2019, Leahy has served as the 10th president of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey.[10]
- Arnold J. Levine: president, Rockefeller University (1998–2002)
- Peter J. Liacouras: president, Temple University (1982–2000)
- John Berrien Lindsley: founded the Medical Department at the University of Nashville (now Vanderbilt University School of Medicine)
- Clyde A. Lynch: president of Lebanon Valley College (1932–1950)
- Qingyun Ma: dean of the University of Southern California School of Architecture (2006– )
- Charles Macalester: namesake and benefactor of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota
- William E. Macaulay: namesake and benefactor of The William E. Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York (CCNY)
- Joseph McCann: dean of the Davis Business School at Jacksonville University
- George McClellan: founder of Jefferson Medical College, now Thomas Jefferson University
- John McClintock: first president of Drew Theological Seminary (now Drew University)
- Richard Patrick McCormick: chair of the Rutgers College history department (1966–69); dean of Rutgers College (1974–1977)
- John McDowell, Class of 1771: first principal of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland (1790–1806)
- Fayette Avery McKenzie: president of Fisk University (1915–25); founder of the Society of American Indians
- Thomas Meredith: a founder of Wake Forest Institute, now Wake Forest University; first president of the institution's Board of Trustees; namesake of North Carolina's Meredith College
- Baidyanath Misra, a Fulbright scholar at Wharton School: former vice chancellor of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, chairman of Odisha State Planning Board, and chairman of Odisha's first State Finance Commission[11][12]
- E. Coppée Mitchell: professor and dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1836 - 1857)
- James D. Moffat: third president of Washington & Jefferson College
- Edward Mott Moore: former president of the Board of Trustees of the University of Rochester; former president of the American Medical Association; a founder of the New York State Board of Health; "the father of the Rochester park system"
- Lewis Baxter Moore: former Dean of Howard University's Teachers' College, the first African American PhD graduate from UPenn in 1896[13]
- John Morgan, Class of 1757 and 1760: founder of the first medical school in North America; founding member of the American Philosophical Society; surgeon general for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War
- Kenneth Mortimer: president, University of Hawaii (1993–2001)
- Henry Morton: first president of Stevens Institute of Technology (1870–1902)
- Robert Mundheim (born 1933); dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Franklin David Murphy: chancellor of the University of Kansas and the University of California, Los Angeles; namesake of Murphy Hall on both campuses
- Daniel F. Muzyka: dean of the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia (1999– )
- Josiah Clark Nott: co-founder of the Medical College of Alabama (now the University of Alabama School of Medicine)
- Merle Middleton Odgers: president, Bucknell University (1954–64)
- E. Coppée Mitchell (1836–1887): professor and dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- B.D. Owens: past president of the University of Tampa and Northwest Missouri State University
- Christopher Stuart Patterson: dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Laura Perna: Centennial Presidential Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania
- Austin Phelps: president of Andover Theological Seminary (1869–79)
- Martha E. Pollack: president of Cornell University (2017– )
- John Edwin Pomfret: president, College of William and Mary (1942–51)
- Edmund T. Pratt Jr.: namesake and benefactor of the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering at Duke University
- Wendell Pritchett: chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden, interim dean and presidential professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and provost of the University of Pennsylvania
- Irvin Reid: first African-American president of Wayne State University (1997–2009)
- Earl S. Richardson: 11th president of Morgan State University (1984–2010)
- Judith Rodin: first female president of an Ivy League university (University of Pennsylvania); president of the Rockefeller Foundation
- Clayton Rose: president of Bowdoin College (2015– )
- Mordechai Rozanski: president of Rider University (2003– ); president of the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) (1993–2003)
- L. Timothy Ryan: president, The Culinary Institute of America (2001– )
- Charles Ashmead Schaeffer, Class of 1861: president of the University of Iowa (1887–1898)
- Morton Owen Schapiro (University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, 1979, Ph.D.): president, Northwestern University (2009 through 2022)[14] and previously served as president of Williams College[15]
- Samuel Simon Schmucker: founder, Gettysburg College
- Phil Schubert: president of Abilene Christian University (2010– )
- John W. Shumaker: past president of the University of Tennessee, the University of Louisville, and Central Connecticut State University
- Rodney K. Smith: president of Southern Virginia University (2004– )
- Laura Sparks: Penn Law JD class of 2004 and Wharton Grad MBA class of 2004: President of Cooper Union 2016 through 2024[16]
- Henry Slonimsky: dean of the Jewish Institute of Religion
- William Bacon Stevens: first president of the Board of Trustees of Lehigh University
- Richard J. Stonesifer: 5th president of Monmouth University
- John Summerskill: 7th president of San Francisco State University
- Joseph W. Taylor: Penn alumnus, founded Bryn Mawr College through a bequest in his will, 1880
- Asher Tishler: Israeli economist; president of the College of Management Academic Studies
- Roy Vagelos: namesake and benefactor of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
- Terri Vaughan: former Iowa insurance commissioner; dean of Drake University College of Business and Public Administration; author
- Gordon Samuel Watkins: first provost of the University of California, Riverside (1949–56)
- Harry Hillel Wellington: dean of Yale Law School (1975–85) and New York Law School (1992–2000)
- Benjamin West: founder of the Royal Academy of Arts; attended Penn but did not earn a degree
- Hugh Williamson: mathematics professor at Penn; an original trustee of the University of North Carolina; secretary of the trustees in the 1790s; signatory to the US Constitution; represented North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention
- Bernard Wolfman: dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and law professor
- Theophilus Adam Wylie: president pro tem of Indiana University (1853 and 1859)
- Mark G. Yudof: president, University of California system (2008–2013); Charles Alan Wright Chair in Law and Chancellor, University of Texas System; president, University of Minnesota (1997–2002)
- Larry Zicklin: namesake and benefactor of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College
- James A. Zimble: president, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (1991–2004)
Law professors and legal academics
- Khaled Abou El Fadl, professor of law at UCLA School of Law; scholar of Islamic law, immigration, human rights, international and national security law, clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice James Moeller, previously taught Islamic law at the University of Texas School of Law at Austin, Yale Law School and Princeton University[17]
- Azizah Y. al-Hibri, professor of law, emerita, at T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond; founding editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy; founder and president of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; a Fulbright scholar who is a member of the advisory board of various organizations, including the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, the Pluralism Project Harvard University, and Religion & Ethics Newsweekly (PBS); appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom[18]
- Anthony G. Amsterdam, University of Pennsylvania School of Law Class of 1960,[19] Professor of Law at NYU Law School, served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review[20]
- Loftus Becker, University of Pennsylvania School of Law Class of 1969, where he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review,[21] Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he teaches criminal law, constitutional law, and a seminar on the Supreme Court;[22] law clerk for Chief Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., of the Supreme Court of the United States; taught at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1971 to 1977.
- Janice R. Bellace, College Class of 1971 (where she received her B.A.) and Penn Law Class of 1974 (where she received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania) former professor of Legal Studies and director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business at the Wharton School of Business and founding president of Singapore Management University; also holds an M.Sc. in industrial relations from the London School of Economics, which she attended as a Thouron Scholar[23][24]
- Francis Bohlen (1868–1942), Penn Law Class of 1892 (Bachelor's degree in Law) and Class of 1930 (Doctor's Degree in Law); Algernon Sydney Biddle professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School[25]
- Goler Teal Butcher Penn Law LLM Class of 1958, Professor Howard University Law School and attorney-adviser in the United States Department of State's office of the legal adviser (1963 to 1971) as the first black person[26] to serve in the legal unit of the State Department legal affairs office[27]
- Robert Butkin, Dean of the University of Tulsa College of Law; State Treasurer of Oklahoma[28]
- Jonathan Z. Cannon, Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Virginia School of Law; Deputy Administrator of the EPA[29]
- Jesse Choper, University of Pennsylvania School of Law Class of 1960, graduating Order of the Coif in 1960 while teaching courses at the Wharton School;[30] clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court of the United States;[31] former professor at the University of Minnesota Law School;[32] Earl Warren Professor of Public Law and Dean (1982 - 1992) at the University of California, Berkeley Law School[33]
- George M. Cohen, Brokaw Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Virginia School of Law[34]
- Debra W. Denno, Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law at Fordham Law School[35]
- Theodore Eisenberg, Henry Allen Mark Professor of Law at Cornell Law School[36]
- Douglas Frenkel, Wharton School Class of 1968 (B.S. in economics) and University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1972 (J.D.);[37][38] Morris Shuster Practice Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Marci Hamilton (born July 22, 1957) University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1988, served as (a) editor-in-chief of the Law Review and (b) law clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States[39] and Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit;[39] former Paul R. Verkuil Chair of Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; presently widely regarded scholar in constitutional law and a Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in the Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania and the CEO and Academic Director at CHILD USA, an interdisciplinary think tank to prevent child abuse and neglect[40]
- Noyes Leech (1921–2010), University of Pennsylvania College Class of 1943 (BA), and University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1948.;[41][42][43] served as editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review;[44][45] reestablished the Mitchell Club as a diverse group of fellow legal students;[46] Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law and the William A. Schnader Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- A. Leo Levin (January 9, 1919 – November 24, 2015) University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1942. He was an Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review;[47][48] was the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1949 through 2014;[49][50] was the director of the Federal Judicial Center from 1977 to 1987;[47] was vice provost of the University of Pennsylvania;[51] was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[52][53]
- Robert J. Levy, former William L. Prosser Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota[54]
- Beverly I. Moran, professor of law, Vanderbilt Law School[55]
- David G. Owen, Carolina Distinguished Professor of Law, University of South Carolina Law School[56]
- Curtis Reitz (born c. 1930), Algernon Sydney Biddle Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Jennifer Rosato Perea, Class of 1987, Dean, DePaul University College of Law
- Alan Miles Ruben (born 1931),[57] Penn College Class of 1953, A.B., University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences graduate school Class of 1956, M.A. and Penn Law Class of 1956, LL.B. where he was an Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review; serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the standard treatise "How Arbitration Works"; serves as Professor Emeritus Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (1970 to 2003) and was Guggenheim Fellowship winner and Fulbright Scholar (1993) who subsequently was appointed Advisory Professor of Law Fudan University in Shanghai, China;[58] became Member of Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 1976) due to his role as fencer who captained both the U.S. team at 1972 Olympics and 1971 Pan-American games; made $500,000 commitment in will to create the Alan Miles Ruben and Betty Willis Ruben Endowed Professorship in the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law[59][60]
- Stephen A. Saltzburg, Wallace and Beverley Woodbury University Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School[61]
- Louis B. Schwartz (1913-2003), law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- M. Michael Sharlot, Wright C. Morrow Professor of Law, University of Texas Law School[62]
- Jonathan D. Varat, professor of law; Dean of the UCLA School of Law (1998–2003); author of popular constitutional law casebook[63]
- James Wilson (Founding Father) (1742–1798), First Professor of Law at University of Pennsylvania, 1789 through 1798, the only person who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and served as a Supreme Court Justice, during the Constitutional Convention, successfully proposed a unitary executive elected through an electoral college system and negotiated the Three-Fifths Compromise, delivered a series of lectures on law to President George Washington, Vice President John Adams, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and numerous members of Congress with Wilson's first lecture on law being given to aforementioned government leaders on December 15, 1789 [64]
- Bernard Wolfman (1924-2011), Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and its Gemmill Professor of Tax Law and Tax Policy, Fessenden Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School[65]
- Michael Yelnosky, Class of 1987, Dean, Roger Williams University School of Law, the law school of Roger Williams University
