Ruth Webb was a PA educator. She has the distinction of being the first Black woman to become director of a PA program.
Ruth Webb was born on October 14, 1923, in Baltimore, Maryland. She passed away November 13, 1982, while attending the annual American Public Health Association convention, which was being held that year in Montreal, Canada. “She left us doing the work we all knew her best for, keeping the Physician Assistant Program afloat and keeping the King/Drew Medical Center in the public eye,” states the program for her funeral.
Webb moved to Los Angeles in 1973 where she entered the PA program at Drew Medical Center. After graduation, she was asked to remain with the program as a member of the faculty. In 1981, she became the program’s director.
Webb made history again by becoming the first PA to be appointed section council chair in the American Public Health Association. In addition, she was a founding member of the LA County Joint Practice Advisory Council on NPs and PAs, which led to her being appointed by then Governor Jerry Brown to serve as vice chair of the California’s Board of Medical Quality Assurance (which would become the Medical Board of California).
She was a firm advocate for diversity in the PA profession and was a treasurer/secretary of the AAPA’s Minority Affairs Committee. Many who knew Webb stated that she had been a mentor and an inspiration to them. The California Academy of PAs offers a yearly scholarship in Ruth Webb’s name.
Acknowledgements:
This biography was prepared by PA History Society staff using sources from the John Davis Collection, Profiles in Black, and the California Academy of PAs website. The photograph of Ms. Webb was taken from her funeral program.
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