James E. Ryan

James E. Ryan, president emeritus of the University of Virginia, is a leading expert on law and education, and has written extensively about the ways in which law structures educational opportunity. His articles and essays address such topics as school desegregation, school finance, school choice, standards and testing, pre-K, and the intersection of special education and neuroscience. In addition, Ryan has authored articles on constitutional law and theory and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ryan is also the co-author of the textbook “Educational Policy and the Law” and the author of “Five Miles Away, A World Apart,” which was published in 2010 by Oxford University Press. Ryan’s most recent book, “Wait, What? And Life’s Other Essential Questions,” based on his popular 2016 commencement speech, was published in 2017 by HarperCollins and was a New York Times bestseller.

Ryan served as the ninth president of the University of Virginia from Aug. 1, 2018, to July 11, 2025. Prior to that, Ryan served as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 2013-18.

Before his deanship, Ryan was the William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law at UVA Law School. He served on the faculty at UVA from 1998-2013. He also served as academic associate dean (now vice dean) from 2005 to 2009 and founded and directed the Program in Law and Public Service. While at the Law School, Ryan received an All-University Teaching Award, an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and several awards for his scholarship.

Ryan has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and the University of Auckland. He has also served on numerous education boards and commissions, and currently serves as a board member of Special Olympics International and the Leiffur Eiriksson Foundation. Ryan is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations, and the recipient of the “Legend in Leadership Award” from Yale.

Ryan received his A.B. summa cum laude from Yale University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia, which he attended on a full scholarship and from which he graduated first in his class. After law school, Ryan clerked for J. Clifford Wallace, former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and William H. Rehnquist, the late chief justice of the United States. Ryan then worked in Newark, N.J., as a public interest lawyer before entering into teaching. Ryan and his wife, Katie, have four children.