Ryan was born in San Dimas, CA and grew up in the cow pastures of Chino, CA. He received his A.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Chaffey Community College and then transferred to California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) where he graduated with Highest Honors with his B.A. in Psychology and a Minor in Criminal Justice. After completing his B.A., Ryan went on to earn his M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from CSUSB. His Master’s thesis explored the relationship between body cameras, police officer use of force, and officer turnover.

Some of his notable achievements at CSUSB were the Associated Students, Incorporated Board Member of the Year Award, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award, the first-ever recipient of the Joanne Worthley Scholarship from the Psychology Department, and the Charles Lewin and Helen Estremera Foundation Scholarship. Ryan also was a founding member of the Psychology Student Research Journal, a publication dedicated to peer-reviewing and publishing student research. He was President of this organization for four years, and Vice President of the Psi Chi National Honor Society chapter for one year at CSUSB. Ryan taught undergraduate courses in statistics and experimental psychology for the Psychology and Student Assistance in learning (SAIL) programs and served as a statistics tutor for the Criminal Justice Department before leaving CSUSB.

Ryan transferred to UNLV in the Fall of 2017 where he is a first-year doctoral student in the Criminal Justice/Criminology Program. He works under Dr. Tamara Madensen-Herold in the Tourism Safety and Crowd Science research lab. His research interests include body cameras, spectator violence, and metacognition. He plans to graduate in 2020 and pursue a career in academia as a professor at a large research institution.