Ryan Prior

Background

About Ryan Prior

Ryan Prior is an award-winning journalist telling stories at the front lines of science and democracy. Over the past 12 years, he has written hundreds of stories for CNN, Psychology Today, The Guardian, The Nation, STAT, USA Today, and The Daily Beast. He has produced work across documentary film, nonprofits, book publishing, and think tanks. His reporting spans pandemic response, science policy, geopolitical conflict, and national security. His recent experience includes field reporting in Ukraine, along with study trips to Israel/Palestine, the Balkans, and Western Europe through Harvard Kennedy School and RIAS. Ryan believes the best journalism connects the dots between high-level decisions and lived experiences of people on the ground — making the strategic personal, and the personal strategic. His writing combines the rigor of data-driven reporting, the intimacy of narrative memoir, and the pragmatism of a policy brief. It’s a rare, yet essential blend in today’s climate of misinformation and polarization. He is the author of The Long Haul: How Long Covid Survivors Are Revolutionizing Healthcare (MIT Press/Penguin Random House), which explores the global impact of the pandemic and the chronic illness crisis that followed. The book has been called “a book we need right now” by Senator Tim Kaine and “an important contribution” by the Secretary General of the World Health Organization. It has also been featured in Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Democracy Now, Psychology Today, Science, and The Lancet. Beyond journalism, Ryan serves as an advisor for a healthcare startup, teaches writing courses, and is represented by a speaking bureau for public engagements. He also takes on CEOs as ghostwriting clients, helping leaders craft op-eds and essays that cast their vision into the world. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a William A. Starr Journalism Innovations Fellow. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Georgia, through its Honors College, and was named to the school’s “40 Under 40” alumni list in 2018. When he’s not reporting or writing, you find Ryan watching Georgia Bulldogs football, reading Tolstoy, traveling to 30 countries (Iceland is up next), trying to nail a Spanish classical tune on his guitar, or serving corner kicks in a pickup soccer game. Whether writing investigative features, producing documentaries, or building platforms for public dialogue, Ryan’s north star is the same: to tell stories that illuminate higher ideals and drive action toward common good.