Born and raised in the Bay Area, Ryan moved to Los Angeles to study political science and global studies at UCLA. After graduating, he and a friend started a nonprofit in East L.A. to mentor children of incarcerated parents. After the program ended due to federal budget cuts, he moved to Madrid to teach English through the Ministry of Education. He then moved to San Francisco to work as a policy intern for the president of the Board of Supervisors and was accepted as a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow in the California State Capitol. Ryan worked in the Capitol as a legislative aide helping pass legislation and advise on issues related to housing, K-12 education, higher education, local government and energy. He just finished a summer internship with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development learning about affordable housing finance and helping the agency create a strategic plan to utilize Opportunity Zones in order to leverage more money toward affordable housing. He hopes to continue working in state and local government upon graduation and tends to create acronyms for no reason, incessantly talk about new podcasts he is listening to, and ask how to improve his self-made scavenger hunts.