James E. Ryan

James E. Ryan, a leading expert on law and education, 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. 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 HarperOne and is a New York Times bestseller. In addition, Ryan has authored articles on constitutional law and theory and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ryan served as the ninth president of the University of Virginia from Aug. 1, 2018 to July 11, 2025. Before coming to UVA, Ryan served as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before his deanship, Ryan was the Matheson & Morgenthau Distinguished Professor at UVA Law School. He also served as academic associate dean (now vice dean) from 2005 to 2009 and founded and directed the school’s 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, including the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission and the board of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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 William H. Rehnquist, the late Chief Justice of the United States, and then worked in Newark, N.J., as a public interest lawyer before entering into teaching. Ryan and his wife, Katie, have four children.