Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, Dr. Ruas spent his early childhood in Cuba, where both his father and mother practiced medicine. Trained in the US, his father, a general surgeon, and his mother, an anesthesiologist, would often take young Ernesto along during house calls. He vividly remembers his parents caring for the ill, and recalls being captivated by their discussions of medical topics at the dinner table. In the 1960s, the family immigrated to the US and eventually settled in Orlando. There, he attended high school and graduated valedictorian of his class. He continued his studies at Emory University in Atlanta, where he received a B.A. in chemistry, Summa Cum Laude.

Inspired by his parents’ love of medicine, Ernesto decided to attend The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. Over the next 10 years, he completed his degree and remained at Hopkins for general and plastic surgery training under the tutelage of Dr. Jack Hoopes and Dr. Paul Manson. Intrigued by facial surgery, he traveled to Mexico City, Mexico, to complete a fellowship in craniofacial surgery under the direction of Fernando Ortiz-Monasterio, M.D., a world-renowned pioneer in craniofacial surgery and aesthetic surgery of the facial skeleton.

In 1987, Dr. Ruas returned to the US and joined the faculty at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. There, he was named director of the Craniofacial Center and participated in patient care at the Breast Reconstruction Clinic at the Moffitt Cancer Center.