Jesse Ruiz, ’95, Receives Lifetime Achievement – Excellence in Legal Service Award From Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund

MALDEF Honors Latino Leaders At Chicago Awards Banquet

June 26, 2023 MALDEF

MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) paid tribute in Chicago recently to three leaders who have dedicated their careers to improving the lives of those in the Latino community and throughout the country.

“As we celebrate civil rights progress, we also must prepare for a new blow to those rights as the conservative Supreme Court soon issues its decision on affirmative action in university admissions,” said MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz. “Historically, the assault on affirmative action has often focused on the growing Latino community, and we have therefore a special responsibility to lead, following in the steps of our honorees, on our most recent forthcoming challenge – to restore greater equity to higher education admissions.”

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Jesse Ruiz, former Deputy Governor for Education for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, was given a Lifetime Achievement – Excellence in Legal Service Award. While in the governor’s office, Ruiz oversaw Illinois’ education system, which included 852 school districts, dozens of community colleges and 12 public universities. From 2004 to 2011, he also served as chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education – the first Latino to do so. He is the son of Mexican immigrants and worked his way through college and the University of Chicago Law School, where he studied under future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and took a class on racism and the law taught by then-professor Barack Obama. Ruiz has served on many nonprofit boards, including MALDEF’s board of directors from 2005 to 2011.

“It is an incredible honor to receive MALDEF’s Lifetime Achievement – Excellence in Legal Service Award,” said Ruiz. “It is truly humbling to be acknowledged by an organization that for 55 years has tirelessly fought for the rights of Latinos, that established the right to a public education for immigrant students in the landmark Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe, and whose board I also had the privilege of serving on. I thank everyone at MALDEF and everyone who supports their advocacy on behalf of the Latino community.”