Kia Ruiz

Kia Ruiz is an environmental and economic resiliency consultant in the Denver area. Kia earned her B.S. in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University. She holds certificates in Graduate Teaching from Florida International University and GIS with a focus on pedagogy. Her passion has been in conveying scientific information to non-scientific audiences. In 2014, Kia was a strategist, new media coordinator, and interim Director of the Colorado GMO Labeling effort. 

Kia dedicates her time to her sankalpa of connecting people to the earth, each other, and themselves to interdependently support all of us going forward. She is a lead teacher for GirlTrek’s Gardeners, the nation’s largest health-oriented non-profit for Black women. Her love of the outdoors finds many expressions: Kia is a Sierra Club hike leader, and she is active with Latino Outdoors, with whom she earned her Wilderness First Aid certification. 

Kia is Ngäble-Bugle, Black, and Seminole with more exploring to do as her family was far-flung in African and American diasporas. Kia serves on her city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee where she works with the city’s strategic plan to guide sustainability efforts and recommendations. Kia also chairs the JEDI efforts at her children’s public Waldorf charter school. Kia is also a yoga teacher, meditation teacher, herbalist, permaculturist, photographer, and conservationist who balances her brain with as much time outside as she possibly can.