We have to bring back to our communities and to society all the mentally ill persons who … are still living in the shadows, under the bridges and highways, and in our jails and prisons.
Dr. Ruiz was born in Quemados de Guines, Cuba. He received a B.S. from Santa Clara Institute in Cuba (1954) and an M.D. from the University of Paris (1964). He interned at the Medical School of the University of Miami (1965), followed by a psychiatric residency there (1966–68). He then moved to New York City, spending a year at the Lincoln Community Mental Health Center in the Bronx, first in the partial hospital services and then as Director (1969–77). He was also in private practice (1969–73).
Dr. Ruiz became associated with the Einstein College of Medicine in 1968 as an instructor, then associate professor (1969–73), assistant dean in 1976, and professor (1978–81). From 1979–81, he was director of the Bronx State Psychiatric Center. He moved to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, as Professor of Psychiatry in 1981.
Dr. Ruiz has spent most of his professional career in public psychiatry and medical school teaching. He is especially interested in transcultural psychiatry and addiction. His activities reflect these interests nationally and internationally through organizational memberships, editorial boards, and lectureships.
Among the editorial boards on which he has served are Hospital and Community Psychiatry (1981–87); American Journal of Addiction (1990–2001); American Journal of Ortho Psychiatry (1994–2004); Journal of Cultural Diversity and Mental Health (1995–98); and Editor-in-Chief of Addictive Disorders and Their Treatment (2001-present), as well as editorial boards of journals in Argentina, Honduras, Italy, Spain, Egypt, and various Arab countries.
His awards and lectureships are also national and international. Among them are the Simon Bolivar Award of the APA (1991); the Rafael Taveres Award of the Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professionals (1991); the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1992 & 93); the Bowis Award of the American College of Psychiatrists (1996); the APA Administrative Psychiatry Award (1991-96); the APA George Tarjan Award (2002) and awards for teaching, research, and community service by the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston. He is an honorary member or Fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis (2005); the World Psychiatric Association (2005), the Mexican Psychiatric Association (2006) the Bolivian Psychiatric Association, and the Egyptian Psychiatric Association (2006). He has also served on numerous National Advisory Committees and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (1995-2002). He was Secretary of the Bronx District Branch (1974-76), Dr. Ruiz has served on numerous major APA Committees including Chair of the Ethics Appeal Board (2001-03).
Dr. Ruiz served as Vice President (2003-05) of the American Psychiatric Association and President (2006-07).