Angela Sustaita-Ruiz | 2024 Latina of Influence
Hispanic Lifestyle is pleased to honor Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Brilla Media Ventures, a Latina entertainment, media and adtech company Angela Sustaita-Ruiz as a Latina of Influence. Ms. Sustaita-Ruiz will be recognized for her leadership in our community during Hispanic Lifestyle’s Connecting Latinas of Influence | Florida, to be held on October 23, 2024.
Angela Sustaita-Ruiz is the Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Brilla Media Ventures, a Latina entertainment, media and adtech company that is WBENC-certified, women and minority-owned. Brilla Media’s portfolio is led by Nuestro Stories, the innovative platform that is devoted to American Latino heritage, histories, and traditions daily, and also includes Nuestro Studios, and Brilla Latina.
With 25 years in marketing and public relations, Angela has led award-winning U.S. Hispanic and multicultural programs. Prior to Brilla Media, she co-founded Hispanicize Media Group in 2009 and the first Latino influencer network, Latina Mom Bloggers (later renamed DiMe Media). She led hundreds of influencer marketing campaigns for major brands like Disney, Unilever, P&G, Netflix, HBO, among many others. In 2019, she sold the majority of Hispanicize to John Leguizamo’s NGL Collective, and in 2022, Leguizamo and Angela were part of the collective that sold all of NGL to Go Digital/MiTu.
Angela’s most recent accolades include being named the 2023 Hispanic Heritage Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Latin American Business Association, a semi-finalist for Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition Prize, and winning the 2021 Hermes Creative Award for the CDC’s “How Right Now” COVID Mental Health Response Campaign. In 2021, Angela was a finalist for the PRWeek Multicultural Marketing Campaign of the Year for Altisimo Live for farmworker relief, and she is also a past recipient of the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) Professional of the Year Award.
A proud third-generation Mexican-American and Texan, Angela comes from a family of migrant farmworkers and community advocates. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Baylor University, and currently resides in Miami, Florida.
