Ryan S. Olson is Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. Prior to his arrival at UVA, he served as Fellow in Late Antiquity at the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University, and, for eight years, as Program Director for the Kern Family Foundation, a leading U.S. philanthropy concerned with educational reform. There, he planned and executed multi-grant, multi-million dollar initiatives on comparative education, school leadership, and character formation.