Ruth López Turley: Wise & Courageous

Welcome to The Wise & Courageous Podcast, where we host conversations with women leaders about how they are seeking and engaging wisdom and courage in their leadership and work in this unique season.

“I would like to leave a legacy of hope…. I get a lot of confidence knowing that God will win at the end. I know the end of this story. How amazing that we get that privilege.” — Ruth López Turley

Sociologist and research leader Ruth López Turley joins Nancy Pedulla on The Wise & Courageous Podcast for a conversation about her journey, and her leadership of the Kinder Institute, an innovative educational organization leading the conversation about critical needs and systems in Houston.

How do our earliest experiences contribute to our passions? Ruth López Turley joins us on the podcast to talk about how she went from being a child growing up in poverty to being the leader of a unique and pivotal research organization delivering research data to address some of the most critical challenges in Houston. In our conversation, she talks about her journey as a leader and the values that have shaped her. She shares how her mistakes have provided opportunities for learning and deeper partnership. We hear more about Ruth’s work to bring changes in large systems for the sake of serving those in need in Houston, and to provide vital models to other cities. We explore together the attitudes and practices that support her in her growth as a leader of more than 80 researchers, and a partner with other organizations throughout the city and state. If you listen to the end, you will hear about the spiritual practice that sustains her in her work.

For the purposes of this podcast, we are defining leadership as the stewardship of people, culture and purpose, guiding and serving others toward a shared vision or outcomes.

Welcome to the conversation!

— Nancy Pedulla

You can listen on iTunes or at The Women Scholars & Professionals Podcast. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

Listen on your favorite podcast platform, or click through to listen to our interview with Ruth on:

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Further resources for this interview:

• Ruth’s page at Rice University

• Ruth’s interview with The Women Scholars & Professionals Podcast from 2019

Ruth López Turley is a Professor of Sociology at Rice University and directs the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, which consists of five research centers that bring together data, research, engagement, and action to improve lives. In 2011, she founded one of those centers, the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), a partnership between Rice and ten Houston-area school districts, aiming to improve educational equity by connecting research to policy and practice, which she directed from 2011 to 2022. She also founded the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP), which connects and supports about 80 partnerships between research institutions and education agencies throughout the country. She has raised over $80M so that partner organizations do not have to pay for research. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises and approves priorities for the research arm of the US Department of Education. The board was terminated in 2025.

Photos by luca romano on Unsplash and by Vlad Busuioc on Unsplash