About

Jessie B. Ramey, Ph.D. is the Founding Director of the Women’s Institute at Chatham University and Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies and History. She is a historian of gender, race, working families, and U.S. social policy and author of the book, Child Care in Black and White: Working Parents and the History of Orphanages. She has received Chatham’s Teaching Excellence Award, the Jane Burger Advising Award, the Feminist Change Agent Award from the National Women’s Studies Association, Pittsburgh’s BEST Ally Award from SisTersPGH, and the Iris Marion Young Award for Political Engagement from the University of Pittsburgh, among others. During the 2025-2026 academic year she will be on research leave supported by an ACLS Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies to work on her book, “The Struggle is the Victory,” a biography of the activist, coal miner, and educator Kipp Dawson.

Dr. Ramey was the Founding Chair of the Gender Equity Commission for the City of Pittsburgh. She was also the Founding Director of the Undergraduate Research Office at Carnegie Mellon University; the Co-founder and Producing Director of Flying Pig Theatre, which presented new works by women; and was Assistant Director of the Westchester Community Foundation/New York Community Trust, where she directed the Women & Girls Fund. Dr. Ramey earned a BA, MA, and Ph.D. in history from Carnegie Mellon University and an MA in women’s history from Sarah Lawrence College.