List of Albany State University people

This is a list of notable alumni which includes graduates, non-graduate former students of Albany State University. It also reflects those alumni who attended and/or graduated from the institution under its prior historical names.

Albany State University is a public historically black university in Albany, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1903, it is part of the University System of Georgia and offers undergraduate and graduate programs across a range of disciplines, including education, business, and the sciences. The university is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

• Horace Clarence Boyer – gospel music scholar; taught music theory and African‑American studies at Albany State College; University of Massachusetts professor and Smithsonian curator^[17]
• Dorothy Cowser Yancy – history instructor at Albany State College (1965–1967); later became first African American full professor at Georgia Tech and president of two HBCUs^[18]
• Rachel Eubanks – composer and pianist; headed the music department at Albany State College; earned degrees from UC Berkeley, Columbia University, and Pacific Western University^[19]
• Joseph Winthrop Holley – founder and first president of Albany State University (1903–1943)^[20]
• Elmer Imes – physicist; taught mathematics and physics at Georgia Normal & Agricultural Institute (Now Albany State University); second African American to earn a Ph.D. in physics and a pioneer of molecular spectroscopy^[21]
• Robert Owens – composer and pianist; taught music at Albany State College (1957–1959); set Langston Hughes' poetry to music and later gained international recognition as a composer and actor^[22]
• Jeanne L. Noble – Albany native; taught at Albany State College before becoming a pioneering educator, author, and professor who advised multiple U.S. presidents^[23]
• Anne Pruitt-Logan – ceramic artist and educator; art professor at Albany State University in the 1960s^[24]
• Mamie B. Reese – associate professor emerita of Education; dean of women and faculty member at Albany State University from 1948 to 1973^[25]
• Charles Sherrod – co‑founder of the Albany Movement; longtime Albany State instructor^[26]
• Portia Holmes Shields – 7th Albany State University president (1996–2005); interim President of Tennessee State University (2011–12)^[27]
• Howard Emery Wright – social psychologist and educator; served as principal of Albany State's Campus Laboratory School (1933–1934); later held academic leadership roles including president of Allen University and director of Social Sciences at Hampton Institute^[28]