Head Of School
CurrentRyan’s career has spanned a range of fields, including environmental science, computer science, Geographical Information Systems and education. A Northern Virginia native, Ryan’s interest in science bloomed at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Later, as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, Ryan’s environmental science research took him to the eastern shores of Virginia where he tested sediment flows to explore sea level rise. He was interested in a career in teaching, but decided to pursue science first. His graduate research in environmental science led him to Brazil where he built electronic systems from scratch as part of a NASA science mission. After graduate school, Ryan worked and managed GIS projects for more than a decade. He decided he wanted to start ideaventions® with his wife, Juliana, after teaching hands-on science with his son, Daniel, and other homeschooled students. He saw an opportunity to create a place where students had the freedom to really explore science, like he had in high school. “I wanted to create an environment where children could experiment and try different things,” he says. To this day, he still gets incredibly excited about the challenge and thrill of experimental design. “One of my favorite things in the world is designing an experiment,” he says.Ryan and his Co-Founder and wife, Juliana, founded Ideaventions Academy in 2015. A fully-accredited school for the intellectually curious, Ideaventions Academy is an innovative learning community founded on joyful learning, academic depth, character development, and community.
