Ryan Downey

Dr. Ryan Downey is the Vice President of Editing Services at MD2B Connect. Early in his career, Ryan coordinated clinical drug trials for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Later, he pursued doctoral training in a multidisciplinary program focused on the cognitive neuroscience of language, where he studied the neural substrates of language processing in intact (e.g., monolingual, multilingual) and disordered (e.g., autism, different types of aphasia) populations, using a variety of behavioral and neuroimaging techniques. After receiving his Ph.D., he put his statistical and analytical skills to work at a Silicon Valley start-up developing assessments of spoken language scored using machine learning. He spent the next 12+ years in positions of increasing seniority at Pearson, Rosetta Stone, and ERB, managing teams responsible for building high-stakes educational assessments. Ryan brings to MD2B Connect almost 2 decades of expertise publishing articles in scientific journals, delivering presentations at international academic conferences, and co-authoring two book chapters on the use of artificial intelligence in assessment.

Ryan earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Michigan and an M.S. in Basic Medical Science from Wayne State University. He holds a Ph.D. from the Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders from San Diego State University and the University of California–San Diego.