Jessie B. Ramey, Ph.D., 2009
January 3, 2017
Jessie B. Ramey, Ph.D., is the inaugural director of the Women’s Institute at Chatham University and Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies. A historian of gender, working families and U.S. social policy, she has published widely in academic journals, the national press, and social media. Her book, Child Care in Black and White: Working Parents and the History of Orphanages, won the Lerner-Scott Prize in women’s history from the Organization of American Historians, the Herbert G. Gutman Prize from the Labor and Working-Class History Association, and the John Heinz Award from the National Academy of Social Insurance. A recipient of a New Faculty Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, Dr. Ramey taught in History and Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. That institution presented her with its Iris Marion Young Award for Political Engagement in recognition of her work on public education policy. She was named one of the top “people to know” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and one of “5 People Making Pittsburgh a More Livable City for All,” by NEXT Pittsburgh.
Dr. Ramey was the Founding Director of the Undergraduate Research Office at Carnegie Mellon University. She also founded and managed Flying Pig Theatre, which produced new plays by women playwrights, and worked in philanthropy at the New York Community Trust / Westchester Community Foundation where she directed the Women and Girls Fund. She earned a BA with honors in Social History from Carnegie Mellon University, an MA in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College, and an MA and Ph.D. in History from Carnegie Mellon University.