Deb Ryan has a 25-year history of assisting communities and their leaders with challenges relating to community development, urban open space and downtown revitalization. As the former Director of the Charlotte Community Design Studio and the Urban Open Space Leadership Institute at UNC Charlotte, she worked with elected leaders from over 25 municipalities in the Metrolina region helping them to formulate strategies to guide growth in their communities. Simultaneously and before, Deb also completed the design of numerous parks, playgrounds and plazas; strategic and small area plans; mixed-use and residential master plans; and, design guidelines. The common thread in Deb’s work has always been in her desire to improve the community in which she has worked, whether that be through a public participation process or in the design of a particular place.

A Marine Corps brat, Deb grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, attended North Carolina State University, and then began work as a coastal and community planner in Brunswick County, North Carolina after receiving a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Landscape Architecture. She left that position to attend Harvard University where she received a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture with an emphasis in Real Estate Development. Upon graduation, Deb worked in California for resort developers Landmark Land and the Pebble Beach Company. She returned to North Carolina to teach at UNC Charlotte where she remains an Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. Throughout her academic career, Deb has also maintained an award winning, active design and planning practice working on project teams with the Wahler Design Group, Freelon, LandDesign, ColeJenest & Stone, Civitas, Warren and Associates, and as head of dRa.

In 2007, Deb formed Ryan Harris at exactly the same time that her husband Mike retired and her only child Addison left to attend College in Baltimore. Clearly, she has time on her hands and a renewed desire to do some good while practicing her profession.