Cheryl Wattley graduated from Smith College, cum laude, with high honors in Sociology. She received her Juris Doctorate degree from Boston University College of Law.  

Wattley then went into private litigation practice, where her work included white-collar criminal defense, civil rights litigation, federal and state criminal defense, and post-conviction proceedings. In 1995, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton for a federal judgeship.

Wattley is the author of a "A Step Toward Brown v. Board of Education: Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and Her Fight to End Segregation” published in October 2014, and winner of the 2015 Oklahoma Book Award, Non-Fiction category. Professor Wattley also authored “Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher: How A ‘Skinny Little Girl’ Took on the University of Oklahoma and Helped Pave the Road to Brown v. Board of Education” in 2010. 

Professor Wattley continues to work with Centurion Ministries, a non-profit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey, devoted to the vindication and liberation of persons wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.