SEIU Fellow
Hometown: Acworth, GA
School: University of Georgia
Degree: BA, Political Science & French
Placement: Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Placement 2: White House Office of Presidential Correspondence
Alexis Ruiz is a first generation Mexican-American, born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Acworth, Georgia. She attended the University of Georgia where she double majored in Political Science and French.
As an undergraduate student, she served as President of Students for Latin@ Empowerment with whom she was given the opportunity to plan and execute leadership building conferences for Latino high school students. She served on the Executive Board of the Economic Justice Coalition and spear-headed the establishment of an English learning program for day laborers and service workers in Athens, Georgia. Alexis was selected as one of twenty-two Latina women to participate in the National Hispana Leadership Institute’s Latinas Learning to Lead Summer Youth Program which took her for the first time to our nation’s capitol and enhanced her interest and reenergized her motivation to give back to her community. In the fall of 2008 Alexis returned to D.C. as a participant of the UGA Washington Semester Program. During her stay in D.C. she interned for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund with whom she conducted research on Latina barriers to higher education.
As a CHCI Public Policy Fellow, Alexis hopes to learn successful policy pushing techniques through hands-on experience and contribute to progressive political efforts which will positively affect the U.S. Latino population.