About
Dr. Blanca Ruiz
Dr. Blanca Ruiz is a Puerto Rican Brooklyn native. Having gone through public school education from K-8 in Fort Greene, Blanca received an opportunity to attend high school at an independent school Downtown Brooklyn – a 15-minute bus ride from her home. It was then that Blanca saw the disparity in education based on race and class. Rather than pursue the originally planned path of law, Blanca decided to pursue education after several tutoring experiences as a Georgetown University student. Blanca began teaching in Paterson, NJ with TFA before coming back across the river to NYC. She spent the next 15 years at KIPP NYC as a teacher, Director of Solutions, principal and Director of Leadership Development. During the latter part of her years, Blanca pursued a doctorate in Educational Leadership with a focus on Authenticity in Latina Leadership, and the necessary structures needed to create that space. Her research was sparked by her own experience as well as similar ones to the numerous women of color who she coached finding it difficult to find her authentic voice in a white dominant organization. Blanca continued to serve as a Senior Director at SEN to support and develop charter school leaders.
Blanca continues to blend her leadership development experience with her anti-racism and racial consciousness lens as a trainer for teachers, leaders and parents, as well as serving as a leadership coach. Blanca is a mother of 2 elementary school-aged children who continue to teach her the importance of honesty and unapologetic presence.
“Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue - my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.”