Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz
Glendale Community College, Arizona
8th President
Life has come full circle for Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, president at the
Glendale Valley Community College in Arizona. From early on, her father,
she says, told her “Mi’ja, you have to go to college.”
In eighth grade, Dr. Ruiz got involved with the wrong crowd, but her father
nipped that situation immediately by transferring her to a school 10 miles away.
She was encouraged to become an engineer, but Dr. Ruiz followed her
calling and became a math teacher. She taught for 23 years at the same school
her dad withdrew her from.
“When I was about 23 years old as a student-teacher, an older man said to
me, ‘why aren’t you at home having babies?’ That incident made me say, this is
why I need to teach in our community,” she recalls.
Another fellow teacher and mentor gave her the motivation she needed to
keep going. “This older man had a sign that said ‘con ganas.’ He believed in our
community,” she says. “No matter how long you’ve been working, no matter the
position, you can always use a mentor.”
After pursuing her doctorate, Dr. Ruiz accepted a position as a process
engineer at Hewlett Packard. The day she arrived in Palo Alto, California, where
the company was headquartered, she learned the company had gone through
a major reorganization and her position had been eliminated. The company then
offered her an administrative assistant position. It was then that she realized
Corporate America was not a fit for her.
Ruiz continued in various roles in academia until 2016, when she became
the interim president at Glendale community college. In 2018, she accepted
the permanent position. Her first event as president was an HSI executive
conversation hosted by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
(HACU) at Apple Park in Palo Alto. It was the exact location where
Hewlett-Packard used to have its headquarters.
“Talk about full circle. It was validating the opportunity,” she says. “You
always have to be ready.”
Dr. Ruiz connects with students through surprise lunches and helping with
math tutoring, a subject she loves. This connection has led her to learn more
about the struggle the GCC students often face. “What stops our students from
success are their basic needs,” she explains.
To alleviate this issue, GCC has partnered with a local nonprofit to provide
housing vouchers for two years to their students, allowing them to concentrate
on advancing their education. “Our typical student is a part-time, a Latina with
a family to raise,” she says.
And for those Latinas looking to become leaders in their communities, Dr.
Ruiz has some advice. “You lead from where you are,” she says. “We need you.
We need your voice, care, and compassion. We know what it takes to save our
communities. Get your credentials and get your degree.”
Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz during commencement.
LATINAStyle V ol. 27, No. 5, 2021 www.latinastyle.com 15
/www.latinastyle.com
