Ruby Tilghman is the reigning Miss University of Alabama 2024-2025. Ruby is a Junior Chemistry major and active member of Alpha Gamma Delta. She is a proud member of the 16th Cohort of the Witt University Fellows Experience. She hopes to pursue a career in Pediatric Neurology eventually completing a fellowship in Movement Disorders. She is currently an Undergraduate Researcher in the Summers Lab, working to develop high value pharmaceutical intermediates.
Ruby‘s community service initiative is Many Mini Musicians a 501c3 nonprofit organization that aims to fund Fine Arts in public schools and create opportunities for students to experience the Arts. Over the last seven years she has had the opportunity to raise over $50,000 for program grants, and over $100,000 through partner organizations.
Through the University Fellows Experience Ruby has gained an appreciation for the challenges faced by low income communities, and how social determinants of health can be addressed on the systematic level. This led her and a team of other Honors College students to develop College Ready Marion, a college and career readiness curriculum for students in the Blackbelt of Alabama. Ruby had the opportunity to present this initiative over a period of 3 weeks while living and working in Marion, Alabama.
Now, she has shifted her focus to providing opportunities for other students to serve in the blackbelt as the coordinator of the 57 Miles Day of Service. Tasked with reinvigorating the program by the Honors College, she has already made community partners, obtained corporate sponsorships, and made plans to mobilize over 75 students to serve in the Marion community.
Ruby is looking forward to her year of service here at the Capstone and sees Miss University of Alabama as an opportunity to give back to the organization that has provided so many opportunities. She also looks forward to continuing her representation of the University of Alabama at Miss Alabama in the near future.