The Latina Oprah

Nancy A. Ruffin is a four time award winning writer and leadership coach committed to empowering individuals to discover their purpose and live their best lives. She has authored and published four books. Her essays and articles have been featured in various print and online publications, including, but not limited to The Huffington Post and Latin Trends Magazine. In March 2018, Nancy was also featured in Latina Magazine for the transformative work she does with her annual strategic visioning workshops.

In March 2020 Nancy was honored during the 2020 Spring Somos Conference of The New York State Assembly Puerto Rican-Hispanic Task Force for her accomplishments as a leader, philanthropist and contributions to the advancement of the Puerto Rican-Hispanic community.

With over 20 years experience as a healthcare leader leading large teams, Nancy uses that experience to help individuals and organizations invested in career success and leadership development. She is committed to helping the next generation of leaders tap into their potential, ignite their fire, and blaze trails of positive change that will leave a lasting impact both in business and our communities for years to come.

A community activist and social justice advocate, Nancy is a firm believer in the West African concept of sankofa. Sankofa is an Akan term that literally means, “to go back and get it.” Loosely interpreted, sankofa's principle is simple, as we rise and excel it is our responsibility to reach back and help others. That philosophy is what drives most of Nancy's work. She believes as we reach certain levels of success we have a responsibility to reach back and help the next person coming up behind us.

As the host of the Tecla nominated weekly podcast, The Nancy Ruffin Show (formerly known as The Empowerment Hour podcast, she uses her platform to inspire and empower individuals to live life on their own terms. Through personal anecdotes and storytelling Nancy demonstrates how discovering the power within can be used to turn obstacles into opportunities, trials into triumphs, and grit into glory by overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges and succeeding in the process.

A graduate of Bernard Baruch College, Nancy has a B.A. degree in Accounting and an MBA in Healthcare Management from The University of Phoenix. A seasoned speaker, facilitator, host, and writer, Nancy has been invited to share her work and give key note speeches at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), VOYA Financial, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cedarmore Corporation's 2019 Lifting As We Climb Annual fundraising gala, United Bank of Switzerland's Hispanic Heritage Celebration (UBS), the NYC Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's 10th annual Women in Business Lunch, partnered with Google on a digital marketing seminar, was hired by LinkedIn in 2021 as a moderator at their annual TransformHer conference, has facilitated workshops and seminars at various schools and universities and recently was hired by WNET Thirteen to moderate their Hay Dinero panel discussion.

Nancy Ruffin

Developing tomorrow's leaders, today

Currently, Nancy serves on the National Board of Directors for The 100 Hispanic Women National, Inc. a non-profit organization that strives to eliminate obstacles and encourage Latinas to be innovative, maximize our potential, create strategic partnerships, promote inclusion in government and corporate America, and improve Hispanic's status.

Nancy is also the founder and Executive Director of The Fierce Woman Collective (TFW)™, Founded in 2014, TFW is an organization whose mission is committed to empowering all women and creating a platform that elevates, amplifies, and recognizes the next generation of women leaders. Through its Power UP initiative women benefit from a wide array of workshops and training programs that include but are not limited to financial literacy, job training and resume writing, career development, entrepreneurship development, business planning, strategic goal setting, work/life balance, confidence building, and personal development. We believe with the right resources, tools, and training women will Power UP and blaze trails of positive change that will leave a lasting impact in our communities for years to come.

Additionally, Nancy is a 2014 Alumn of the Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA ) writing cohort where she attended the Summer 2014 one week writing residency at UC Berkeley and studied under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz, Elmaz Abinader, Mat Johnson, Chris Abani, M.Evelina Galang, Patricia Smith, Willie Perdomo, and Stacyann Chin. She was also selected to participate in the VONA Summer 2016 and Summer 2017 one week writing residency at the University of Miami and UPENN, respectively.

Most recently Nancy founded The Nancy Ruffin Success Academy for Personal & Professional Development to help women step up, show up, and take control of their lives. The Success Academy is for entrepreneurs, coaches, service providers and professionals who are stuck or unsure about their next steps.

Lastly and most importantly, Nancy has been married to the love of her life for the past 22 years and is the mother to two beautiful daughters ages 11 and 8. She resides with her husband and their daughters in New Jersey.

DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE AND COMMIT EVERY DAY TO FULFILLING IT.

WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE, PEOPLE WON'T REMEMBER YOUR RESUME. THEY'LL REMEMBER HOW MUCH OF YOURSELF YOU GAVE TO THE SERVICE OF OTHERS.

NANCY A. RUFFIN

PARTNER WITH NANCY

A celebrated collaborator, Nancy welcomes the opportunity to join forces with corporations, brands, organizations, and universities that are looking to empower women and girls. Known for being an energizing speaker, she has presented on topics ranging from cultural pride and diversity, personal development, branding, entrepreneurship, girl power, to what it's like being a working mom and managing a successful home/family life.

WAYS TO PARTNER

KEY NOTE SPEAKER

EVENT HOST

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

BRAND AMBASSADOR

SOCIAL MEDIA + INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

BRANDED CONTENT INTEGRATION

SPEAKING RESUME, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & RECOGNITION

2024 Served as emcee for the 100 Hispanic Women's 20th Annual Mind, Body, Spirt Conference, March 2024
2023 Participated as a panelist on the Four Steps to Launching Your Business panel at the 5th annual Pow(H)er Conference in NYC, November 2023
2023 Contracted by Emblem Health to lead a series of personal branding workshops for their employees, October 2023
2023 Moderated Panel Discussion for PBS /WNET Hay Dinero Web series Launch, October 2023
2023 Served as emcee for the 100 Hispanic Women's 19th Annual Mind, Body, Spirt Conference, March 2023
2022 Key Note Speaker for Elevate NY, April 2022
2022 Key Note Speaker for Voya Financial, March 2022
2022 Key Note Moderator for 100 Hispanic Women Latina Pay Equity Conference, March 2022
2021 Key Note Moderator for the 2nd Annual Westchester's Women's Summit, Interviewed Legendary Actress Chita Rivera, November 2021
2020 Key Note Speaker for the 100 Hispanic Women Annual Gala, October 2020
2020 Key Note Speaker for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Suffrage Conference. March 2020
2020 Selected as an Entre Nosotras Honoree by Somos New York. March 2020
2020 Selected as a Mujer Imparable (Unstoppable Woman) by Telemundo.
2019 Key Note Speaker for the FBI's Hispanic Heritage Month Brunch. October 2019
2019 Key Note Speaker for The Cedarmore Corporation's Lifting As We Climb Annual Fundraiser. April 2019
Partnered with Prospanica to raise funds for the annual college scholarship fundraiser. April 2019
Partnered with Hostos Community College to bring her successful and highly requested strategic planning and goal setting workshop to the school. Fall 2018 & Spring 2019.
Was invited to share her work at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 2018.
Partnered with Foster Care Unplugged and PCNY to raise funds for the 2018 10K Back Pack Drive. Collectively we raised over $60,000 & gave away 10,000 backpacks filled with back to school supplies.
Featured in Latina Magazine, March 2017
Awarded the 2017 International Latino Book Award for Best Self Help Book for her book Live On Purpose.
Awarded the Blogher 2017 Voices of the Year Award.
Awarded the Blogher 2016 Voices of the Year Award.
Selected to participate in the Summer 2017 and 2016 Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) one week writing residency at the University of Miami.
Selected to be a Huffington Post Blog content creator.
Content creator for Medium.com
Launched The Empowerment Hour podcast. Now known as The Nancy Ruffin Show
Selected to be the keynote Speaker for Union Bank of Switzerland’s (UBS) 2014 Hispanic Heritage Celebration.
Nancy’s sophomore book, Letters To My Daughter, was a 2014 Finalist for Latino Literacy’s Now, International Latino Book Award for Best Poetry Book -English.
CEO and founder of The F.I.E.R.C.E Woman Foundation, an organization committed to uplifting, supporting, & empowering women.
Successfully created and launched the Power of the F.I.E.R.C.E Woman campaign. A campaign designed to recognize outstanding women committed to the evolution and empowerment of themselves and their fellow women.
Worked with the students of Christ the King Elementary School in the Bronx and was integral in publishing a book of poetry written by the fourth grade class.
Was the primary source responsible for raising money to fund the equipment, resources, and supplies necessary for a new computer lab at Christ the King Elementary School.
2014 Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Alumn
Selected by Latino Literacy Now to be a 2014 NAHP José MartÍ Award judge.

EDUCATION

Gold Level Lean Certification (Lean Process Improvement Methodology), 2012 Simpler Education
Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma, 2010 Breakthrough Management Group
MBA, Master of Business Administration, 2008 University of Phoenix.
B.A., Bachelor of Arts, 2004, Baruch College.