Raised and educated in Mainland China, Japan, and the United States, Ruyi began her career as a development professional at The Juilliard School, working closely with leadership to identify prospective domestic and international donors, including those for the creation of the Tianjin Juilliard School in China.
In 2013, Ruyi joined CCS Fundraising as part of the on-site fundraising counsel team for the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation, supporting the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. During this engagement, the CCS team secured $375 million from 75 donors across five continents. Most recently, Ruyi partnered with The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) on giving challenge planning efforts. She has also led several development assessments and campaigns for various nonprofit sectors—including arts and culture, secondary and higher education, environment, religious, and youth and social services—based in California, Oregon, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York.
An experienced public speaker, Ruyi has presented at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, the CASE Asia-Pacific conference in Singapore, and roundtables in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, as well as on various webinars focused on philanthropy.
She has served as the co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Steering Committee, CCS’s in-house group of experts on APAC, since 2019. She also serves on the Innovation Committee, a subcommittee of the CCS Board of Directors, and is a co-founder of CCS Elevate, the firm’s thought leadership initiative designed to apply CCS best practices to address the next big questions in philanthropy. Additionally, Ruyi is a member of the Council of Advisors for the Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Ruyi’s work in Asia-Pacific builds on her academic and research background as a Fulbright scholar, where she focused on social enterprise management and leadership while living in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
Ruyi holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is committed to serving as an advisor to nonprofit organizations focused on the Asian Pacific Islander community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Select client Partners
- Schwarzman Scholars
- The Asian American Foundation
- Women in Global Health
- Asian Health Services
- Lan Su Chinese Garden
- China Institute of America
- Presidio Knolls School
- La Scoula International School
- Congregation Rodef Sholom
- Willamette Falls Trust
