Ryan is a third-year PhD student in the Applied Economics program at the University of Minnesota. Ryan is also a graduate student member of the Minnesota Population Center, and is an active member of the Natural Capital Project: The Earth-Economy Modelers (NatCap TEEMs) and Glewwe Development Lab. Ryan is a student member of the American Economic Association (AEA), the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA), and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE).

His research lies at the intersection of environmental economics and development economics. Using causal inference methods to identify structural models, Ryan takes an applied microeconomics approach to questions related to the tradeoffs between economic growth and environmental preservation, behavioral and market-related solutions to climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as the equilibrium effect of policy interventions aimed at economic growth.

Ryan completed his MS in International and Development Economics at the University of San Francisco (USF), and his BS in Economics and BS in International Business at Saint Louis University (SLU).