Kevin M. Ryan

Kevin Ryan is the President and CEO of Covenant House International, the largest charity in North and Central America helping children and youth facing homelessness, trafficking and exploitation. During the 1990s, Ryan spent a decade on the front lines of Covenant Houses work with youth on the streets of New York and New Jersey before becoming New Jersey's first public Child Advocate. He was subsequently nominated and confirmed to lead a reform of the states child welfare system as New Jerseys first commissioner of the Department of Children and Families. At Covenant House, Ryan and the Covenant House team have expanded the agency's reach to 31 cities in 6 countries, most recently Chicago, Berkeley, York, Grand Rapids and Asbury Park. His book about 6 youth facing homelessness in Canada and the United States, Almost Home, was a collaboration with former New York Times reporter Tina Kelley and became a national best seller in 2012. He was named both a Skadden Fellow and a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School, and served as a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown, his Masters of Law from New York University, and his Bachelor of Arts from Catholic University.