Story Series Sponsored by:
Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the vibrant tapestry of Hispanic cultures that enrich our community.
We are honored to share with you four stories of Hispanic individuals in South Carolina who honor our heritage by their perseverance toward a bright shared future for all people.
Week 1 - Sept 16
Johanna Perez Ruiz | A Servant-Hearted Leader
Our 2026 Hispanic Líderes Series opens with someone who helped build the Hispanic Alliance from the ground up. Johanna Ruiz is a founding HA board member and Director of Growth and Community Engagement at Molina Healthcare of SC. Even in that first year, she saw where this was headed. "Honestly, I didn't have any doubts we would be where we are today," she says. "But, of course, I knew that would take time."
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Johanna and the other founders set out to open doors, working on the barriers Hispanic and Latino families in Greenville were running into. Healthcare was one of the biggest, and it's still the world she works in every day. She sees the community's needs growing wider now, from young adults heading into college and the workforce to our elders. She also keeps showing up where it counts: "I have to continue to stand up and speak for my people, and I'm sometimes the only Latina in the room."
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Her dream for what comes next is simple. "In unity comes strength, and if we all move in the same direction, we'll be able to accomplish a lot more."