In honor of African-American History Month
By Donald F. Smith, Cornell University
Ruby Perry DVM, MS, DACVR is Interim Dean of
Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine,
Nursing and Allied Health
In a blog recently posted on this site(1), I described the five veterinary college deans who had
graduated from Tuskegee University during the 1970s, and questioned what motivated such an impressive number to pursue positions in academic
leadership.
Interim Dean Ruby Perry (Tuskegee 1977), a
board-certified radiologist who spent her career at Tuskegee and Michigan
State University, graciously allowed me to share her personal story. “I can’t
tell it myself,” she explained, “because it’s too intensely personal, but perhaps
you can write it for me. It’s a story that should be told and maybe it will
help someone pursue a leadership position.”
Ruby Perry, DVM, MS, DACVR
Interim Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Applied Health
Tuskegee University
(Photo by Tuskegee University)
Dean Perry acknowledged that many factors framed her personal and professional life. “My journey involved risks," she said, and acknowledged with much gratitude her mother's admonition to seize the
moment whenever it presented itself. “Because
you are Black,” her mother told her when she was in high school, “and because you
are growing up in rural Mississippi in this civil rights era, you will only get
an opportunity once. Don’t let it pass
you by.” Dean Perry elaborated,
I grew up in the Deep South in the small Mississippi
town called Tougaloo, right across the street from a historically Black college by
the same name. The college served as the base for gatherings and meetings of civil rights leaders visiting her area. The local community, of which my mother
was a prominent member, provided refuge and food for the leaders, and supported
their plans and their strategies to advance desegregation.
Though still a young
girl, Ruby witnessed her mother’s passion and her unrelenting commitment to use
the gifts and abilities that she had been given to help the cause. By her words
and actions, Ruby’s mother indirectly “charted my life” by pushing her to take
a leap of faith to make a difference toward the common good.
As the middle child of five, Ruby felt
“boxed-in,” and that perhaps pushed her toward developing a spirit of
independence. Though her siblings received the same opportunities for an
education, Ruby’s mother perceived that she was different. She was highly
inquisitive by nature and she had a desire to explore the world and its
opportunities. Ruby’s mother encouraged her, putting her in a typing class that
eventually helped her through college. Though Ruby would have preferred playing
basketball like other children, “I got cut in the first round anyway”, so
my mother’s decision turned out to be a fortuitous decision.
The defining event in Ruby’s teenage
life was becoming one of the students chosen by her mother and other community
leaders, in collaboration with local Civil Rights leaders, to officially
desegregate the high school adjacent to the neighborhood where she lived. “I
was pulled from my African American high school in Jackson, Mississippi, to be
one of five African American students to enter the 10th grade in an
all-white high school.”
Though the five students were unwelcome
and had no social interaction with their white classmates, they all survived to
graduation. There continued to be no association with the school whatsoever when they were unexpectedly invited to their 40th class reunion. Two of the five had died and a third could not be located. Only Dr. Perry and one other former student
attended what turned out to be an emotional conclusion to an untenable 40-year estrangement.
Many of my classmates remembered what we had endured
and came up to us and apologized. The former school principal was even there
and he made a special effort to meet with us to talk about those three years at
his high school during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He also
expressed remorse for how we had been treated by him and by others on his
watch. The choir director, who had refused to allow us to join the school choir
when we were in high school, invited us to sing in the Class Reunion
Choir. It was an extraordinary event.
Dr. Perry cited two other principal
factors in her passion for leadership: mentors and friends. She ascribes to the
notion that a circle of mentors is essential to an individual’s growth and
development. “I have many mentors who have
not only motivated me, but provided guidance and afforded opportunities along
my career journey”. She feels fortunate to continue to have a mentorship circle of those
who believe in her and encourage her to be the agent of change for which she
has the capacity, desire and interest. She singled out for special gratitude
the women veterinary deans whom she had met at the recent deans’ meeting in
Naples and to whom she felt a special kinship during their van drive from
Naples to Orlando. In another dimension, she talked about the African American
veterinary deans whose willingness to share their experiences and keep in touch with her means so much.
Finally, Dean Perry recognizes the
importance of true friends. “Though persons in this group are few,” she
acknowledges, “they are long-lasting supporters.” In her development as a
leader, friends who have helped her improve her
self-awareness by giving honest and direct feedback without being judgmental,
have been critical to her success.
During a workshop on Women's Leadership I co-presented recently at St. George's University in Grenada, I described Dean Perry's admonition to seize opportunities and not let them pass by. Sitting in the front row was Dr. Annie Corrigan, a member of the faculty, who almost leapt from her seat as the picture of Dean Perry flashed on the screen. Without hesitation, she turned to the assembled students in the rows behind her and told them how the former section chief of radiology at Michigan State University--Dr. Perry had spent 17 years at MSU--had mentored her years before.
Mentee and mentor, receiving and giving,
throughout her career. Dean Ruby Perry has been more wave than ripple in the
ever-expanding circle of mentoring and leadership.
