Carey Ruiz, Dr.

Carey Ruiz is an Associate Professor of Sociology for the Division of Social Science and helped develop CU’s Center for Diversity and Community. She has been employed at Campbellsville for 8 years. Dr. Ruiz teaches courses in Sociology and the Justice Studies graduate program. She is also the Co-Principal investigator for the Appalachian College Association’s Collaboration for Equity.

Dr. Ruiz completed her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Kentucky in 2012. She completed her undergraduate and master’s degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Western Kentucky University in 1999. Dr. Ruiz specializes in social inequality, specifically race, gender, and social class. Her research interests have included public perceptions of welfare recipients, an evaluation of impoverished women’s reproductive choices, best practices for teaching about race and other controversial topics in the classroom, and adolescent perceptions of and reactions to racism. She has also collaborated with other researchers and published in the areas of examining relationships between poverty and eugenics, human trafficking, as well as the relationship between structural racism and Christian ethics. In addition to conference presentations and publications in the areas of race and poverty, Dr. Ruiz has led several university student group discussions on race relations. She has also served on panels as a discussant and led forums discussions on race and poverty in her community.

Dr. Ruiz lives with her spouse in Lexington, Kentucky, and is the proud mother of 7 amazing humans and several “fur babies.” Dr. Ruiz was raised in Baptist/Methodist churches but converted to Catholicism in 2018. She is a member of Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Through Mary Queen, she is also involved with a local organization, Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct Action (BUILD), which identifies local issues and advocates for community change. Dr. Ruiz is an avid fan of both Star Trek and punk rock.