Environmentalist and community activist Cynthia M. Ruiz was unanimously confirmed by the Los Angeles City Council to a seat on the Board of Public Works on July 19, 2005 and serves as its president.

Commissioner Ruiz, who was one of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s first commission appointees after his election as mayor, previously served on the Board of Public Works in 2003-04.

As a Board commissioner, Ruiz brings more than two decades of community involvement and experience to a team that ensures quality and efficient delivery of key City services to the public.

The five-member Board of Public Works, the City’s only full-time policy-making Board, serves jointly as general manager of the Department of Public Works, the City’s third largest municipal agency with more than 5,800 personnel. The Department of Public Works is responsible for construction, renovation and operation of public facilities and infrastructure ranging from curbside collection, recycling and graffiti removal to maintenance of sidewalks, bridges, sewers and streetlights, maintenance of wastewater treatment plants and design of public buildings.

“My responsibilities on the Board are in areas in which I have participated as a private citizen and have had a long and continuing interest,” Commissioner Ruiz said. “I believe my background in the private sector, coupled with my academic training and involvement with Neighborhood Councils and other community activities, has placed me in a unique position to achieve some of the tasks facing me.”

As President of the Board of Public Works, Commissioner Ruiz sits on the City of Los Angeles ’s Emergency Operation Board and is also a board member of Project Restore. Other activities include serving on an advisory board for ATHGO (Alliance Toward Harnessing Global Opportunities), a nonprofit organization, which engages youth in issues at the United Nations. She has also partnered with LAUSD School Board Member Monica Garcia to start Latinas Lighting the Way, a youth mentorship program.

For three years she served as an elected member of the LA-32 Neighborhood Council and has been a volunteer on the County of Los Angeles Landlord Tenant Mediation Panel .

Commissioner Ruiz received the “2006 Top Leader Award” from the American Public Works Association Southern California Chapter and the “2006 Inspiration Award” from the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society. In commemoration of Public Service Recognition Week, she received a “2007 Leadership Award.” She was also honored at the Southern California Indian Center 38^th Annual Pow Wow. She was highlighted in LA Weekly’s 2007 People Edition in a feature entitled “Trash Talker.”

Commissioner Ruiz is a graduate of California State University , Los Angeles , where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in counseling and Chicano Studies and a Master of Science degree in counseling. She also holds a certificate in Federal Mediation Training.

The Commissioner was a rehabilitation counselor for more than 25 years and an expert witness for various court cases for 20 years. She also has more than 20 years of teaching experience, providing instruction in workers’ compensation rehabilitation, review of related case law, and rules and regulations in all aspects of workers compensation.

Commissioner Ruiz has also worked as a consultant mediator for the Rehabilitation Bureau of the State of California , holding formal conferences to resolve disputes between injured workers, their attorneys, insurance companies and defense attorneys.