She and her Daily News colleague, Barbara Laker, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for their work exposing a rogue narcotics squad with the Philadelphia Police Department.
On November 22, 2020, Ruderman authored a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer about University of Pennsylvania student Mackenzie Fierceton winning a Rhodes Scholarship.
[5] Fierceton later withdrew from the Rhodes program admid controversy over how she characterized herself in various applications as a "first-generation, low-income" student.
[6] Still, Ruderman's language was used in the Rhodes Trust's investigation to support the allegation that Fiereceton misrepresented herself as growing up poor.
[7] The University of Pennsylvania's investigators did not find evidence that this misleading statement could be attributed to specific actions by Fierceton.