[4] Her mother was the first woman to earn a PhD in library science from Columbia University, and encouraged Ramona to pursue an academic career.

Her family moved again, to Carbondale, Illinois, and she briefly attended Lincoln Junior High School there.

[2] Edelin then attended Fisk Univeristy, receiving the Sarah McKim Maloney Award in 1964, participating in the honors program, and placing on the dean's list almost every semester.

She created one of the first university voluntary honor codes, which students signed to enable taking unmonitored tests.

She earned her Fisk bachelor's degree magna cum laude in religious and philosophical studies, with departmental honors, in 1967.

[6] Kenneth needed to complete a tour of military service in England and Ramona moved there to study as well.

[1] By 1975, she had separated from her husband, Kenneth Edelin, who was the first Black chief resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston City Hospital.

He was convicted of manslaughter that year by a Boston jury for a legal abortion which he had performed after Roe v. Wade.

Ramona spoke out on her husband's behalf to the media, and compared the city's racial violence towards Black children to their anti-abortion sentiments.

She thought that having a united group identity would help ensure self-sufficiency, highlighting African legacies and enabling rebirth and development.

[3] That same year, she was appointed by then president Bill Clinton to the Presidential Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

She served for one year, starting in 2003, as Vice President, Policy and Outreach of the Corporation for Enterprise Development.

[5] In 1975, she earned the Roxbury Action Program Distinguished Service Award, and was named one of the Outstanding Young Women of America.

[5] Northeastern created the Ramona Edelin Award in her honor, for academic achievement in Africana studies.