Alya Ruiz

Alya Ruiz is an MIA candidate at Columbia SIPA, concentrating in International Security and Diplomacy and minoring in Political Development and Governance. 

Prior to SIPA, Ruiz worked with refugee populations in West Asia and Eastern Europe and supported disaster relief efforts in the Caribbean. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, where she focused on youth development and gender equity, and received a USAID grant to advance women’s economic empowerment in a rural community. She previously worked on bipartisan federal economic policy reforms and supported refugee communities through the International Rescue Committee.

Most recently, Alya worked with the US Department of State on the Haiti Gang Suppression Force, a UN Security Council-authorized multinational mission. Her portfolio supported the intelligence-led counter-gang operation through diplomatic engagement to facilitate troop deployments and operations, strengthen regional investment in Haiti’s security infrastructure, and advance disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) mechanisms. Ruiz is currently a John D. Solomon Fellow with the NYC Emergency Management Government Relations Unit, and serves as cochair of the Student Life and Social Committee within SIPA’s Student Association. 

Alya's policy interests include conflict mitigation, humanitarian crisis management, and political development within a post-conflict reconstruction framework. 

As a Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow with the US Department of State, Ruiz will join the Foreign Service upon graduating from SIPA.