Our Story

Ruby Tree is named for my grandmother, Ruby Lee Thomas — the root of everything this work stands for. Ruby helped establish one of the first Pre-K programs in Texas, in Galveston, but didn't earn her own degree until after raising and sending four children to college herself. She drove from Galveston to Beaumont to attend Lamar University, then earned her master's from Texas Southern University.

That pattern repeated across our family — though not everyone's path led through a diploma. My father, on the far left in this photo, didn't finish college, but helped start Ruby Tree alongside his sister, my aunt Paula Thomas, a computer applications teacher in Galveston. My grandfather, a Navy officer, postman, pastor, and city councilman, built a life of service without ever finishing college either. My mother, pictured here with me on graduation day, finished her own degree two days after I graduated high school. Some of them never earned a diploma of their own — but every one of them built something that mattered.

I was raised in inner-city Dallas and am completely self-made. I didn't know any of this made me unusual until I got to the University of Houston myself. I had been a strong student and reader in high school, but no one had ever taught me how to study — how to read a syllabus, manage my time, or walk into a professor's office hours without feeling like I didn't belong. I chose the right major and worked 30–40 hours a week to put myself through school, but it still took me five years to graduate. I suffered through it silently, afraid everyone else already knew what I didn't.

After earning my degree in English Literature, I enrolled in Texas Southern University's Master of Arts program, hoping to become a professor of writing. Instead, I was assigned to teach Developmental Reading — and that assignment changed the direction of my life. I learned how to study, and how to teach others to study. I built bridge programs for Upward Bound, Gallup, and Texas Southern, and wrote short handbooks to help students with reading and writing processes that had once been invisible to me.

Those handbooks were eventually digitized, adopted, and became the foundation of Are You Ready for College. I later earned a Doctor of Liberal Studies from Southern Methodist University. Today, our products have reached more than 10,000 students — and we're still growing.

This organization exists because I needed it — and didn't have it. Every program we've built since is designed to give students the tools, confidence, and belonging that it took me five extra years and a family full of late bloomers to discover on my own.