Ryan Conley enjoys hearing people’s stories and helping tell them in a compelling way. It was this interest that led him to a career in communications. He is a communications and legislative affairs officer at the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), a position he has held since June 2020. In this role, he collaborates on communications and outreach strategies, drives FFAR’s media presence and oversees the daily management of programs, projects and events.
Conley previously worked as a communications specialist at Axiom Resource Management, Inc., where he assisted the Department of Defense in rolling out the military’s new electronic health record. In this capacity, he wrote and edited external-facing collateral, such as newsletters, factsheets, annual reports and talking points for leaderships’ speaking engagements.
Prior to this, Conley promoted community banking and consumer protection at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) as the communications coordinator. There, he coordinated media relations and drafted press releases. In addition, he wrote material for NCRC’s quarterly newsletter, social media and 25thanniversary retrospective.
Conley’s communications career began at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He managed the peer review process of manuscripts, assisted with soliciting manuscripts from prominent academics and promoted new journal initiatives.
He holds a master’s degree in philosophy from The University of Memphis and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from The George Washington University. He and his wife have two daughters and two cats, none of whom pay attention to him.