A true pioneer in the field of social work and applied social sciences, Wilma Peebles-Wilkins, PhD, DPNAP (SAS '71), served as a practitioner, administrator, educator and mentor to hundreds of individuals throughout her career.
Working with autistic children since her early career, Peebles-Wilkins served as dean of Boston University’s School of Social Work and as a former scholar at Duke University's John Hope Franklin Center. She has written extensively on the history of blacks in American social welfare, and received the Annual Award for Greatest Contribution to Social Work Education by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, among many other achievements. In 2019, she was honored as a Case Western Reserve University Trailblazer.
Peebles-Wilkins has been a stalwart philanthropic partner at the Mandel School for over forty years, providing critical annual support, helping to enhance the Student Emergency Fund and contributing to scholarships. Often considering her greatest professional achievement to be her mentorship of others, she wanted to provide scholarship support for a student in Cuyahoga County interested in foster care social work. In March 2023, she created the Wilma Peebles-Wilkins Endowed Scholarship for Infant and Young Child Well-Being.
The university, Mandel School, our faculty, staff and students offer their sincere gratitude to Peebles-Wilkins for creating this fund to support students as they pursue their educational dreams.