Hi, I'm Ryan!

I started volunteering at my local homeless shelter when I was thirteen years old.  I joined the staff in college and became Executive Director right after law school.

Running the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois is--more or less--all I have ever done.

A few years ago, I also started training organizations on how to compassionately (and effectively) manage problematic behavior from homeless (and other troubled) individuals.  I have had the opportunity to train tens of thousands of individuals around the world through live and online trainings.

I also had the opportunity to work with the American Library Association to write The Librarian's Guide to Homelessness and got to accompany Emilio Estevez on a 30-city publicity tour for his movie about homelessness, THE PUBLIC.  For a fun Q&A I did with Emilio, Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone, Christian Slater and Michael K. Williams at the Toronto International Film Fest, go HERE.

I live in Aurora, Illinois (just outside Chicago).  I am ecstatically married to Krissie and have two fantastic children (Cameron and Hailey).  I'm also a lawyer that doesn't practice law anymore and have a Master's in Public Administration.

My favorite book is Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, and my favorite movie is THE PUBLIC, obviously!!

peace,

​Ryan Dowd

---