Ryan Cook

Originally from San Diego, California, I earned my bachelor's degree at Brigham Young University and pursued my master's at the London School of Economics, focusing on Anthropology and Development. Anthropology proved to be the perfect convergence of my passions for history, languages, and the arts, offering a lens through which to explore human complexities. Throughout my educational and professional journey, I've come to realize that sustainable change is most effectively achieved by embracing the rich cultural diversity that exists around the world. My experiences have also led me to collaborate extensively with Amazonian Indigenous communities in Ecuador and with diverse NGOs spanning the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and Uganda. My work has primarily been centered around empowering women within their unique contexts. After graduate school, I worked as the Operations and Program Manager at Women of the World, a nonprofit in Salt Lake City dedicated to supporting refugee women. Over several years, I helped grow the organization from a team of 4 to 16, significantly expanding the number of women served and introducing a variety of new programs. I currently serve as an Officer in the Culture and Community department at Zions Bank. In this role, I support both internal and external community development initiatives, including assisting public landowners with real estate needs, facilitating public-private partnerships, and advancing local community efforts in alignment with the Community Reinvestment Act.