Ryan is undergraduate foreign affairs major at American University in Washington D.C. He served five years in the United State Marine Corps as an intelligence analyst before receiving an honorable discharge in 2018. After completing active-duty military service he worked as a contractor for the Defense Intelligence Agency performing counterterrorism analysis. Ryan also interned at the Cato Institute’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Department. His published works have appeared in the Marine Corps Gazette and the Learn Liberty Blog. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and retains an interest in East Asian security challenges.