Our Team
Bio:
Ryan stepped into ONDA’s executive director role in 2018, with 20 years of experience in the conservation sector under his belt.
While serving as the executive director of the Bend-based Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, he built award-winning restoration and stewardship programs, developed long-term partnerships, and recruited a talented team of staff and collaborators. Through this work, he developed a reputation as a committed and effective leader in Oregon conservation, well known for strategic vision and a dedication to collaboration. He has taught courses at the university level, worked as a research fellow with the Smithsonian Institution and led several ecological research projects. He earned his undergraduate degree in environmental science from the University of California at Berkeley and his masters in ecology from the University of Arizona.
Ryan enjoys a deeply-rooted connection to the desert. His earliest backcountry adventures were set in the Anza-Borrego and Mojave deserts of California. And, today, he and his family spend much of their free time exploring the desert streams and wide open landscapes of central and eastern Oregon.