James E. Ryan

James E. Ryan is the 11th dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. An expert on law and education, constitutional law, and constitutional theory, he writes primarily about law and educational opportunity. Ryan is 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. He has also authored or co-authored articles on constitutional law and theory. Before coming to Harvard, Ryan was the William L. Matheson & Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. He also served as academic associate dean from 2005-09, and founded and directed the school’s Program in Law and Public Service. He is the recipient of an All-University Teaching Award from the University of Virginia, an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, and several awards for his scholarship. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Auckland, Harvard, and Yale law schools. Ryan was a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission, a group tasked with examining how to make public education both excellent and equitable.After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1992, Ryan first clerked for J. Clifford Wallace, then-Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit, and then for William H. Rehnquist, the late Chief Justice of the United States.