As chief program and strategy officer, Ryan Stubbs oversees NASAA’s programs and services to the field, including research and community learning activities. He ensures strategic alignment among NASAA’s mission, planning and program priorities to serve and strengthen state arts agencies. With deep knowledge and experience in the field, Ryan serves as a key leader and communicator to advance state arts agencies and NASAA.
Ryan served for 13 years as NASAA’s director of research and senior director of research. In these roles, he significantly contributed to NASAA’s organizational effectiveness and mission by spearheading research articulating the value of state creative economies and the impact of the arts across sectors, and visualizing the reach of state arts agency programs and activities. Ryan stewarded revisions to state arts agency data taxonomies and contributed to national technical working groups in areas such as arts impact data, arts education data, arts service organizations and more. He contributed to and led large-scale projects in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Governors Association, ArtPlace America, the National League of Cities, the Community Opportunity Alliance, Grantmakers in the Arts and others.
In addition to his experience at NASAA, Ryan’s prior work in state government, local government, politics and the arts have made him uniquely qualified to understand the complex policy and political environments of state arts agencies. Prior to joining NASAA, he served as research director for Creative West, where he developed data and technology frameworks for a national creative economy index. Before that, Ryan worked for the Colorado Department of Higher Education as a capital analyst, authoring legislative submittals for statewide higher education capital construction needs. Ryan has experience in local economic development, working as a business development manager in Adams County, Colorado, where he implemented state tax incentives along with business attraction and retention programs. He served as deputy director for a state senate campaign fund targeting high-priority races in Colorado. Ryan holds two master’s degrees, in public administration and urban and regional planning, with an emphasis in economic development planning, from the University of Colorado, Denver.
Ryan lives in Denver with his wife and three children and continues an active creative practice of writing, performing and recording music.
