Appointed acting dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences in 1973-74 (now the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel of Applied Social Sciences), Ruby B. Pernell was the first African-American woman dean at Case Western Reserve University. She came to the university as the Grace Longwell Coyle Professor in Social Work in 1968; she continued to serve in an emerita professor role from 1982 until her death in 2001. At the end of her career, Pernell was considered a pioneer in the field of international social work. Pernell’s work touched many communities: she was a settlement house worker at the Soho Community House in Pittsburgh and a faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. Pernell was hired by the University of Minnesota as a professor of social work in 1948, the same year that Edwin D. Driver was hired by the University of Massachusetts. Pernell and Driver are believed to be the first black faculty members hired by a state flagship university in the twentieth century. At Case Western Reserve, her contributions included the introduction of curriculum in management of human services, planning for undergraduate social work programs and membership on the Afro-American Studies Program Advisory Committee. However, her great contribution as a pioneer in the field of social work was her leadership in the field of international social work. She was Social Welfare Attache to India for the State Department under Ambassador Chester Bowles, one of only two Social Welfare Attaches in the history of our country. Her interest in the field of international social work has also been with the International Council on Social Welfare as well as various consultant activities of an international nature

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