Ryan will lead schools foundation

Portland School Board member sees new job a ‘perfect match for me’

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Jun 12, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Portland School Board member Dan Ryan was chosen to lead the Portland Schools Foundation.

Tribune file photo

The Portland Schools Foundation has named Portland School Board member Dan Ryan as its new chief executive officer.

Ryan, a Portland School Board member since 2005, was named to the post on Thursday, voted in unanimously by the foundation’s board.

He’ll start the full-time job on July 1, resigning from the volunteer Portland School Board effective June 30. Since his school board term does not expire for another year, the board will appoint a new member to fill the rest of the term. There’s no timeline yet set on filling the vacancy; new board co-chairwomen Dilafruz Williams and Trudy Sargent will lead the process.

Ryan’s last school board meeting will be June 23. He’ll also resign from his job as chief development officer with the Oregon Ballet Theatre.

Ryan, who turns 45 in a few weeks, said after a friend mentioned the vacancy at the foundation to him and prompted him to apply earlier this year, he was “very shocked and humbled. It took me almost two weeks to apply because I’m very passionate about my job with the ballet and also really engaged with my role on the school board. I didn’t take letting go of those responsibilities lightly.”

Yet, Ryan called his new post a “perfect match for me, looking at my professional responsibilities and personal passions.”

Ryan will take the place of Fred Miller, a businessman who’s served as interim CEO after Connie Van Brunt, a Chicago charter schools administrator named to the post in almost a year ago to date, stepped down six months later amid questions about her finances as raised by Willamette Week.

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