Upon his entry into recovery in 2015, Ryan began organizing. Within three years, he had met thousands of people who shared their experiences about how addiction impacted their communities. He traveled across the United States to talk with families and people, learning about the gaps in our healthcare system and how we can fix them. He was inspired to work for change at a higher level by lifting these many voices. What started as a whisper became a roar. Ryan’s belief in big ideas helped him lead a team of bipartisan advocates around the country, who successfully championed hundreds of pieces of legislation to offer addiction support services. And after losing one of his closest friends to a preventable overdose, he helped to bring corporations and nonprofits together to offer 800,000 lifesaving units of the overdose medication Naloxone in 24 states at zero cost.
