Ryan is a fifth-year PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on sexualities, food insecurity, and health, including queer place-making in Vancouver—queer pop-up social events—and gay/queer/Two-Spirit men's health.
Prior to joining UBC, Ryan worked at NORC at the University of Chicago on two community-based HIV prevention studies among black gay men and transwomen on the Southside of Chicago and helped develop a national HIV surveillance survey for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with the Fenway Institute.
Additionally, Ryan volunteered on a sex-positive public health PrEP marketing campaign advertised across Chicago, #PrEP4Love. Ryan holds a Master’s Degree in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, where he researched PrEP sense-making among gay men and healthcare providers.