Kelly Ryan

Experts Meeting: The Home and Displaced People
Working Paper | Building Home in Immigrant Integration and Inclusion Policies and Initiatives 

Kelly Ryan, Senior advisor in the Office of the Director, serving as the chair of the White House Interagency Naturalization Working Group since March 15, 2021. In October 2019, she returned to USCIS after a six-year detail as coordinator of the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum, and Refugees. Ryan was acting deputy assistant secretary for immigration in the DHS Office of Policy from 2010 to 2013. From 2002 to 2009, she served as the deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration in the Department of State. During her tenure at DOS, she led inter-agency efforts to reform the U.S. refugee admissions program. From 1992 to 2002, Ryan practiced law, including as the chief of the Refugee and Asylum Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Services Office of the General Counsel. Ryan has advised United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a member of its advisory group of eminent persons. She was appointed by President Obama, and confirmed by the United States Senate on March 29, 2012, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, a U.S. development agency.