Elizabeth Ruiz

Elizabeth A. Ruiz is a doctoral candidate and research assistant at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University studying educational policy and evaluation with a focus in special education. She received her MA in special education and elementary education from ASU in 2015 and her BA in literature and secondary education from Stockton University in 2007. With seven years of classroom experience, Elizabeth has been both a general education and a special education high school teacher in New Jersey and Arizona and has worked in various urban and rural school settings.

Elizabeth's scholarship is sponsored through the Office of Special Education Program Grant Opportunities and Funding, specifically Project INCLUDE - Inclusive Consortium of Leaders in Urban Disabilities Education. Her research interest centers in both fields of special education and teacher education, focusing on educating teacher candidates collaborative practices that equitably engage culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities and their families. Her dissertation aims to utilize the Intersectional Conscious Collaboration tool for educator preparation (ICC-EP; Weinberg & Boveda, 2021) as a means to shape pre-service teachers' intersectional competence (Boveda, 2016), support collaborative special educational practices, and enhance the potential to engage CLD families equitably.

In terms of service, Elizabeth serves as the founding president for the Council for Exceptional Children Arizona State Student Chapter. Elizabeth is also part of the OASIS Learning Futures Collaborative, founded by Kathy Hoffman, in which its members engage in seeking ways to create a future educational model where special education and labeling disabilities are not necessary for all students to have the optimal experience.