Don Ryan, Vice President, Policy
 Don Ryan directs Second Nature’s national policy and advocacy efforts in Washington, DC. Working closely with allied organizations,
Mr. Ryan helps leverage the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium networks to win policy changes that advance sustainability and climate action.
Over the past three decades, Mr. Ryan has worked in Washington in the executive branch, in Congress, and in the public interest community on environmental, transportation and housing policy issues. Prior to joining Second Nature, he served as staff director to three expert panels of the National Academy of Public Administration, including leading a study to help federal environmental and natural resource agencies design the institutional structures for a national system of environmental indicators.
As co-founder and executive director of the Alliance To End Childhood Lead Poisoning from 1990-2005, Mr. Ryan helped achieve breakthrough progress in protecting children from lead poisoning and other health hazards in their homes. He helped shape the landmark federal law that shifted the approach from reaction to prevention and built a powerful network of grassroots advocates, practitioners and experts that lobbied Congress and federal agencies to protect children at highest risk.
As professional staff to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Mr. Ryan oversaw the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency for eight years. At the U.S. Department of Transportation, he handled funding for mass transit and highway programs and coordinated energy conservation strategies across the transportation sector during the 1970s “energy crisis.”
Mr. Ryan serves on the boards of directors of the National Center for Healthy Housing and Occupational Knowledge, Inc. Mr. Ryan has a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Southern Mississippi.
|
