Meet Kristina Ruiz-Healy
Competitive Fencer with a Lifesaving Mission
Through the art of simple conversation, the Leadership Houston XXXIX class set out to learn about each other and other Houstonians to inspire others to chronicle their legacy and life for future generations.
During my conversation with Kristina Ruiz-Healy, I learned of a fantastic woman clearly driven to excellence from her youth. However, what struck me the most about my conversation with Kristina is how effortlessly she travels between cultures and the amount of compassion she holds for others.
She attributes the cross-cultural ease to her grandparents. In the late 1940’s, after graduating from Carleton College, her grandmother traveled from St. Paul, Minnesota to Mexico City to earn her master's degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in painting. And it was there that her grandmother met her grandfather while he was attending medical school.
Years later, while Kristina’s father studied medicine at Mt. Vernon hospital New York City he met his future wife who was studying nursing. This love story spanned into the third generation of a bicultural and bilingual family that honored their heritage and traditions from both sides of the border and from across the North Atlantic Ocean.
“Being bicultural is like being amphibious, you learn how to navigate on land and water and see things from different perspectives”
Another virtue that is as equally apparent in Kristina’s character is compassion. After fencing competitively for many years and earning local, regional and national medals, she began teaching fencing as a way to stay connected to her passion. In addition to teaching students public and private institutions, Kristina co-founded a wheelchair fencing program at the San Francisco Veterans Association where she witnessed the power of helping others.
“It stops being about winning medals and becomes about passing on knowledge others can benefit from”
And so here she is, in the City of Houston where she serves as a Community Engagement Specialist for LifeGift, a federally appointed non-profit organization that focuses on healing and saving lives through eye, organ and tissue donation. Each day she honors and reflects the values and virtues passed on to her by her heritage and personal journey.
