Mexican, Mother, Wife, Dancer, Photographer, Poet and Social Justice Warrior.
Ruby's work experience includes operationalizing equity strategies in external facing programming and external relations, developing and designing field education experiences, leadership development, local arts advancement, and cohort building for the local arts agency field, arts and culture administrators, and arts marketers. She led Americans for the Arts' equity work, including assisting in the transformation of its signature field research project, Arts and Economic Prosperity study. She was the chief architect of the National Arts Marketing Project Conference from 2017 to 2021, successfully transitioning from in-person to online. Recently, she was selected for the 2021 BIPOC Leadership Circle Cohort with Artequity. She was a 2019 Arizona State University Practices for Change Fellow. She was recognized as an 2019 Inspirational Woman (Arts Advocate) by “And I Thought” Women in Literature. She is a steering committee member for the National Coalition on Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response, serves as Chair of the Gard Foundation, serves on the board for the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (Grants Committee/Advocacy Committee) and serves on Aha Media board and PBS/WETA Community Advisory Council.
Ruby’s work has focused on equitable access, grantmaking, supporting individual artists, community development, economic development, cultural tourism, marketing and public art. She draws on a varied background that includes corporate affairs, community relations, volunteerism, employee engagement, marketing and communications, and business administration. She served on the Emerging Leaders Council for Americans for the Arts, was the primary contact for the Arts and Economic Impact Study for Central Ohio from 2008-2016, and recently served as a mentor with Arts Administrators of Color DMV. She is a 2017 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Advocacy Leadership Institute Fellow, Class of 2017 American Express Leadership Academy Alum and Class of 2010 Next Generation of Leaders Fellowship program.