Ryan Pakebusch

Ryan Pakebusch is the Associate Director for the Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) program. As he began this role, he successfully relaunched in-person programming on the African continent with the 2023 residential student program and educators conference and looks forward to expanding the reach and depth of the programs’ impact. Ryan is also a lecturer in the Education Studies department and teaches the course EDST 245 “Designing and Evaluating Educational Interventions in the Global South”.

Additionally, Ryan currently serves on the Training and Mentorship sub-Committee of the Africa-wide HALI Access Network, which aims to train educators to support students applying to global universities, and is the co-chair of the Yale-wide working committee for the Through the Eyes of She initiative, which focuses on gender equality and equity in Africa.

Prior to joining Yale, Ryan lived and worked in East Africa (Somaliland and Kenya) for five years. In that time he was a classroom teacher (English, History, Global Politics, and Visual Arts), college counselor, researcher, and consultant to NGOs and foreign governments. Ryan earned a dual-degree in Government and Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.