Ryan Ubuntu Olson is a gender and human rights expert with 20 years of experience advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. At DAI, Ryan drives development impact by integrating inclusive development considerations across DAI programs and working with staff to incorporate equity and inclusion in workplace practices.

Before joining DAI, Ryan led diversity and inclusion efforts at Palladium, where he also addressed stigma, discrimination, and violence in HIV and sexual reproductive health and rights programming via the USAID and PEPFAR-funded Health Policy Projects. He supported programs ranging from documenting human rights abuses, to working with frontline advocates as they advanced health policies, to training U.S. Ambassadors and U.S. Mission staff on gender and sexual diversity in the context of U.S. Government health programming.

Ryan has co-chaired the Society for International Development US’s Inclusive Development Working Group and served as an Equity, Human Rights, and Gender expert for The Global Fund to fight HIV, TB, and Malaria’s Technical Review Panel. He was named an Out Leader in National Security and Foreign Affairs by Out in National Security, and he has been recognized by both a former U.S. President and U.S. Secretary of State for his work to advance human rights. He is the author of the memoir, Finding My Humanity.

• M.P.S., Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas
• B.S., Gonzaga University