is a scholar/practitioner and the Chief Workforce Development Officer and Executive Director of the Tania M. Barber Learning Institute at Caring Health Center. Dr. Ruiz leads the development of a workforce development model designed to enhance the success, retention, and personal development of FQHC diverse employee communities. Dr. Ruiz has expertise in educational access and equity and workforce development among lower-income, first-generation, BIPOC communities and aims to bridge access to opportunities for career advancement in health care through critical and collaborative community engagement frameworks and practice. She earned her PhD and MEd at UMASS and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Education from Mount Holyoke College. She has presented nationally at research conferences and is a published author. Her most recent work, a co-edited, co-authored anthology “(Re)framing college access, by and with communities of color: Our knowledge, our process, our choice” has just been published by SUNY Press.
