[1] She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University[2] and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

[7][8][9] In 1987 she was appointed a lecturer in Anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital, London, which started her career in forensic anthropology, serving in this role until 1992.

[21] Black has been an innovator in developing techniques and building databases to confirm or disconfirm someone's identity based on photographs of their hands or arms.

In 2009, Black used vein pattern analysis to confirm the identity of a suspected child abuser, who then pleaded guilty.

[31][32] In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the UK by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour[33] and in 2014 was also subject of The Life Scientific on the same station.

[35] Black delivered the 2022 series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, with the title "Secrets of Forensic Science".

[48] In 2017 Black was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine by University of St Andrews for her contribution to science and humanity.

She received an honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) from the University of Aberdeen in 2019, at a ceremony in which her daughter graduated in law.

[51] Black features in a larger-than-life portrait by Ken Currie titled Unknown Man which hangs in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.

[53] In 2024, Baroness Black was appointed as a Lady Companion of the Order of the Thistle (LT) by King Charles III.