Dr. Blanca Ruiz (she/her/ella) is a proud Puerto Rican Brooklynite. Having gone through K-8 public school education, Blanca received an opportunity to attend high school at an independent school 15-minutes away. It was then that Blanca experienced the disparity in education based on race and class. After a series of tutoring opportunities in DC as an undergraduate at Georgetown University, Blanca pursued teaching. This sparked her career in education as a teacher, principal, leadership coach, principal mentor/advisor and Director of Leadership Development. She has continued the focus on working with leaders on strategically planning for equitable conditions in organizations through transformative and human-centered leadership.

She received her doctorate in Educational Leadership with a focus on Authenticity in Latina Leadership, and the necessary structures needed to disrupt status quo and cultivate spaces for a sense of belonging in schools and organizations. Blanca is an independent consultant who blends her leadership development experience with her anti-oppression and racial consciousness lens as a leadership coach, and an anti-racism facilitator for teachers, leaders, and parents. She is also passionate about working with students on being their own best advocates. When Blanca is not coaching or facilitating workshops, she is probably drinking coffee or water, eating vegan donuts, decanting or labeling (or both). But more often than not, she is basking in mothering two amazing children who continue to teach her the importance of honesty, unapologetic presence and hope that liberation is possible.