Doris A. Smith-Ribner

Doris A. Smith-Ribner served on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court for almost 22 years, and she was the first African American woman to serve on the Court.

After graduating form the University of Pittsburgh School of Law with her J.D., Smith-Ribner entered private practice in Allegheny County, handling both civil and criminal litigation. She simultaneously served as Solicitor for the Allegheny County Controller. 

Smith-Ribner's judicial career began in 1984, when she became a judge on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, in the Juvenile Division. She served an interim term until 1985, and was elected to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court two years later. She was re-elected in 1997 and 2007, and retired from the bench in 2009.

Over the course of her judicial career, Smith-Ribner served in several other capacities. She served on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board Hearing Committee for five years. She was also appointed by Governors Milton Shapp and Dick Thronburgh to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. In 2014 she was selected as one of 15 members on the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans - a position she still holds. As a member of the Commission, Smith-Ribner works to identify education practices that demonstrate high levels of student success, particularly among African Americans.

Smith-Ribner presided over a long-running School District of Philadelphia desegregation case from 1993 to 2009, finding that the school district failed to provide an equal and high quality education to racial minorities. Her decision and subsequent remedial orders, among other remedies, led to full-day kindergarten for every eligible child attending public schools in Philadelphia. She also ordered the state legislature to provide the Philadelphia public school system with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. The funding was to be used to execute the recommendations of a panel of education experts, intended to create equal educational opportunities for students at racially isolated schools. 

Smith-Ribner has been involved in a number of access to justice initiatives throughout her career. She was appointed as a member of both the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission on Gender Racial and Ethnic Fairness and the PA Justice Reinvestment Work Group. She also organized two prisoner reentry summits in 2011 and 2012.

Countless organizations have honored Smith-Ribner for her judicial service, education advocacy, and support of diversity initiatives. A list of her awards an honors can be found here.