Ruthzee is no stranger to civic participation and the democratic process. She served as Senior Counsel on Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential and Senate campaigns. She has knocked on doors for local, state, and national candidates. She has worked to elect prosecutors across the country running on reform platforms. And she has worked to secure voting rights for Black and Latinx communities in racial gerrymandering cases before the United States Supreme Court.

When a Downtown nightclub denied entry to Ruthzee and her classmates simply because they were Black, Ruthzee testified before City Council upon request by then-Councilor Ayanna Pressley. She also provided sworn testimony to the Attorney General, determined to ensure that no other Black Bostonian would have to face such discrimination again.

And when the political process ignores the needs of her community, Ruthzee and her family have joined and led protests against unfair immigration practices and police brutality. Learn more on Ruthzee’s vision for an inclusive city government.

As a 14 year-old tour guide with MYTOWN, Ruthzee learned early on about the devastating effect of government-sponsored practices such as redlining and blockbusting that entrenched housing segregation and deprived Black Bostonians of wealth-building opportunities through homeownership. While a student at Harvard Law School, Ruthzee spent her Saturdays volunteering with Project No One Leaves, knocking on doors of Boston homeowners and tenants in properties facing foreclosure, and provided them with legal assistance in partnership with City Life/Vida Urbana.  As Co-Director of the Eviction Clinic at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, she assisted individuals facing evictions and represented them in Boston Housing Court, either keeping them in their homes or negotiating favorable terms until they found new homes. 

Ruthzee is an activist and volunteer attorney for the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, an organization advocating tirelessly towards a racial justice homeownership vision. She works with MAHA’s leadership team to negotiate deals with private developers to further expand homeownership opportunities for working class Bostonians. Learn about Ruthzee’s vision for housing and homeownership in Boston.

Ruthzee is a proud graduate of Boston Public Schools. While in college and graduate school, Ruthzee continued to work with public school students, creating a program called “Each One Teach One.” In this work, she began mentoring young Haitian immigrants, and served as a classroom assistant to her first-grade teacher for a semester while attending Harvard Kennedy School. Her unwavering commitment to education was recognized when then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino appointed Ruthzee, as the only student, to the Advisory Committee on Student Assignment for Boston Public Schools. Ruthzee also worked at the Posse Foundation, a non-profit working on expanding access, equity, and meritocracy in education, where she helped alumni of the program apply to graduate programs.  

Ruthzee realizes the incredible role that education and mentorship can play in reducing poverty and increasing access and is committed to driving more resources to the public schools most in need. Learn about Ruthzee’s vision for schools.

Ruthzee’s First Job: Boston Tour Guide

At the age of 14, Ruthzee got her first job giving walking tours of the city of Boston through an organization called MYTOWN. Her route consisted of stops in the South End and Lower Roxbury. While people may be familiar with the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere, few know about Dr. King’s role in the history of Boston, or Mel King and the people-led struggles that transformed community-destroying highway projects into parks and proposed parking lots into affordable housing. Through these walking tours, Ruthzee and her teenaged peers provided attendees with a more diverse, inclusive, and people-centered history of Boston. Just last year, Ruthzee gave a version of the tour to Boston doctors in an equity-based program.