She has long been active in civic and philanthropic organizations on a local and statewide level. She became inspired to volunteer for the project after she visited Kenya in 2004, 2007 and 2011, and saw the difference the Nambale Magnet School is making in the lives of its students, their families and the surrounding community. Ruth and her husband were honored in 2014 for their philanthropic work, including for the school, as recipients of the Alexis de Tocqueville Herbert H. Pearce Award from the United Way of Greater New Haven.