Our Featured Fellow for September 2025 is Ruby Hernandez, a third-year environmental health doctoral student in the School of Public Health at Texas A&M University (TAMU). Ruby’s blood runs maroon, having earned an MPH in Environmental Health in 2021 and a Bachelor of Science in Health Science in 2018 from TAMU.

Ruby’s passion for serving selflessly started at a young age. Born and raised in a small border town, Laredo, Texas, Ruby learned that her community needed leaders who could relate to the environmental and public health inequities her community faced. Her version of public health went beyond doing what was ethically correct, instead doing what was morally right. It meant representation and visibility for the underrepresented.

That selflessness drove her to serve as an active leader and operative for the Texas A&M COVID-19 Operations Unit, where she was responsible for contact tracing, case investigation, and reporting to the state for the Brazos County Health District. Apart from her work, she volunteered her free time with the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center as the community liaison for the dissemination of COVID-19 communication, working with local radio stations and spearheading joint vaccination campaign efforts. Later, she formally joined the Superfund Research Center as a trainee for the Community Engagement Core, where she ensures community representation and engagement and facilitates the translation of research into the community.

In 2022, Ruby joined the Bill Anderson Fund (BAF) as a fellow. Since then, she has served on the Culture Committee and as the Secretary of the BAF Student Council, where she helped facilitate communication between student committees and the Fellows’ Executive Committee.

Ruby’s research is focused on the expanding impact the environment has on health: particularly, documenting the potential health risks associated with living near a fenceline of an industrial facility that manages hazardous materials. Her dissertation project looks at a historically underserved neighborhood along the Houston Ship Channel, Harrisburg/Manchester, Texas. Working closely with the community, this project aims to analyze and compare the 8 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act metals and 16 prioritized Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, as identified by the Environmental Protection Agency, with the current standards. Given their elevated vulnerability to a range of man-made and natural hazards, these communities are at the center of research intended to empower academics, residents, leaders, and advocates with critical insights.

Ruby’s passion for advocating and ensuring that everyone obtains the opportunity to live a dignified life has led her to new opportunities, such as serving at multiple public health departments. Today, Ruby volunteers her time helping to build the newest public health initiative in Texas—the Bastrop County Public Health Department. There, she serves as an Environmental Health Specialist, advocating for rural health, disaster preparedness, clean water, and the importance of working closely with all community members, regardless of their standing. After graduation, she hopes to continue working closely with the public sector, finding new ways to uplift marginalized communities: helping them rise, rebuild, and reimagine what’s possible. Guided by purpose, she’s forging a future where equity isn’t a dream—it’s the standard.