Meet Ryan Shepherd, YPB Member

Ryan Shepherd, YPB Member

Ryan's heart is purple for his grandfather Rollo Kuebler. “My Grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December of 2011. He fought hard and lived to see the birth of his first great grandchild before losing his battle in July of 2012. The swiftness of this disease and the lack of warning signs drove me to get involved with the YPB and support early detection research.”

Now, for some fun facts about Ryan...

Ryan's favorite quote is "The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We've always done it this way.’ - Grace Hopper."

His favorite sports teams are “the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and my hometown teams, the Nashville Predators and Tennessee Titans."

Ryan’s favorite summer activity in Chicago is “watching fireworks on the 4th of July from a rooftop in West Town. The 360 degree, hours long vista is a truly unique Chicago experience.” When asked what his favorite restaurant in the city is, Ryan replied “I have a soft spot for the Costa Rican cuisine at Irazu. Being BYOB doesn't hurt either.”

Ryan’s dream vacation is “to hop on a train in Lisbon and take it across Europe to Istanbul. In the meantime, I am working on a trip across central Europe to Munich, Prague, and Vienna.”

Ryan is a native of Nashville, TN and currently lives in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. He graduated with a BA from the University of Notre Dame and with a MBA from Vanderbilt University. He currently works in Enterprise Sales at Microsoft.