Michele Ruiz Biography

Michele Ruiz (born April 8, 1967), is an entrepreneur and a former Los Angeles news anchor. She is now known under her personal brand,"Michele Ruiz, My Life as a Latina Entrepreneur". She is also President and CEO of Ruiz Strategies. Previously, she was founder and President/CEO of SaberHacer.com, a bilingual expert based "how-to" educational broadband site for US Hispanics online.

Biography

Michele Ruiz is an award winning broadcast journalist. She grew up in Southern California, where she attended Cal State Fullerton and graduated in 1988 with Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication.

After graduating Ruiz began her broadcasting career in 1989 co-anchoring Channel One News. The program initially began as pilot program broadcast in four high schools before its national debut in 1990.

From 1991 to 1998, Ruiz worked at KTLA in Los Angeles, California as a field reporter and morning anchor for the station's KTLA Morning News and co-hosted a weekly public affairs program.

In 1998, she joined KNBC-TV as a general assignment reporter. She would soon be promoted to an anchor position, where she would co-anchor the station's nightly 6:00 pm newscast with Chuck Henry.

Ruiz has received 19 Emmy nominations during her career. In 2003, she won two Emmys for her work on KNBC news specials "Journey to Africa" and "LA Riots: Rubble to Rebirth". She has received numerous honors, including two Golden Mikes, for her work on KNBC's "Beating the Odds" series, and in 2002 was presented the LA Press Club Award for a series on autism. Ruiz would leave KNBC in 2005 to concentrate on other projects .

In 2006, Ruiz founded SaberHacer.com, a bilingual expert based "how-to" educational broadband site for US Hispanics online. She launched the video on demand site to provide quality and culturally relevant content for U.S. Hispanics when she determined there was a void of culturally relevant content for Hispanics. In 2011, she started Ruiz Strategies, a strategic communications company. Ruiz has stated her mission is simple - do what she can to help people and change lives.

Ruiz is known for her charity work and has volunteered her time with many organizations. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the non-profit agency Para Los Niños for 13 years. She also serves on the Cal State Fullerton College of Communications' Dean's Advisory Board.

In addition to being recognized for her work in television, Ruiz has received two commendations for "Outstanding Citizenship for Civic Contributions" and "Dedication to the Community" by the City of Los Angeles. She was named "Latina of the Year", and "Comision Femenil De Los Angeles". She also received the "Certificate of Congressional Commendation" from the U.S. House of Representatives; a commendation letter from the United States Senate; and a "Certificate of Recognition" from the California State Senate.

Ruiz was honored in 2006 by Cal State Fullerton with the Vision & Visionaries award. The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor that the university bestows on those who have gotten their degrees from this institution. It has been presented to Titans in business, science, education, communications and the arts and brings to the forefront, the vision, achievements and philanthropic efforts of Cal State Fullerton's graduates.

Movies

Ruiz appeared in the 1993 film Rising Sun as a Television Reporter The film was directed by Philip Kaufman, starring Sean Connery (who was also an executive producer), Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Kaufman, Michael Crichton and Michael Backes wrote the screenplay, based on Crichton's novel of the same name.

Personal

Ruiz who lives in Los Angeles is Panamanian and is fluent in Spanish