Ruby Lopez (She/Her/Ella) is an eco-intersectionality-minded community leader and advocate with over 6 years experience serving systematically excluded communities. Originally from Chicago, Ruby was raised in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood to immigrant parents and got her start working with marginalized communities on the south-side of Chicago. She has since dedicated her life to serving BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities and believes in harnessing the healing powers of community, nature, solidarity, and art to address the pain of inequity facing these communities. She has a B.S. in Earth, Society, and Environmental Sustainability from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In her spare time, she is also an experienced dancer and is most likely out dancing if she’s not working, resting, or tending to her house plants. She uses dance, specifically afro-latin dance, and burlesque, as mediums for advocacy and community building. Ruby also enjoys using her voice for storytelling and performing monologues around the themes of gender, trauma, queer joy, overcoming obstacles, and more.