Ryan is a PhD in Planning student under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Dean in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo. Ryan has completed a Master of Planning (MPl) in Urban Development degree from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2021 and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies with a Minor in Sociology from the University of Calgary in 2019.
Ryan’s research interests pertain to the intersection of planning and migration. Specific research interests surround migrant (i.e., immigrant, refugee, temporary foreign worker, and international student) settlement and integration, migrant acculturation and wellbeing, multicultural and intercultural integration policy, and the built and social environments of smaller Canadian cities.
Ryan’s MPl graduate research focused on the role of planning in a multicultural context through qualitative examination of immigrant settlement experiences in a smaller city in Canada which was titled: Planning with Multicultural Diversity: A Case Study of Immigrant Lived Experiences in Brooks, Alberta. His MPl graduate research was funded by the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration (2020-2021) at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University)