Ryan grew up in Ennismore, Ontario just outside of Peterborough and played minor hockey with the AAA Peterborough Minor Petes, the Ennismore Eagles and the St. Peter’s Secondary School Hockey Team. At the age of 20, he sustained his 5th and worst concussion in 2016 and was told to stop playing contact sports all-together. 

His experiences with the injury has led him to become a champion for concussion awareness, education and research having started his own social purpose business in 2017 that donated money to concussion research; to then turning the business into a federal non-profit organization called the Headsup Concussion Advocacy Network (HeadsupCAN) where he continues to find new ways to spread awareness and educates thousands of students every year on the topic. His involvement with HeadsupCAN led him to PACA in 2019 where he joined the panel as a community representative and has since taken over as the project manager in 2020.