Ryan Downey, PhD

Ryan Downey, PhD, serves as Associate Professor of Physiology for Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. In this role, he delivers the School’s Physiology curriculum. 

Prior to joining the School, Dr. Downey served as Associate Professor of Physiology at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. He previously was a teaching faculty member at Georgetown University, where he also served as Co-Director of the graduate physiology program and as a member of Georgetown University Medical Center Teaching Academy for the Health Sciences. 

Dr. Downey received his bachelor’s in biochemistry and master’s in physiology at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. He earned his PhD in integrative biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He continued his research at Emory University, where he was a teaching postdoctoral fellow and NIH IRACDA Fellow in the Fellowships in Research and Science Training (FIRST) Program. He earned a second master’s in learning, design, and technology at Georgetown University. 

Dr. Downey serves as Associate Editor for the American Physiological Society journal, Advances in Physiology Education, and is a contributing content expert and editor for Understand Your Physiology, an interactive online resource for physiology education. He is also a PADI scuba instructor and an advocate for ocean and marine life conversation.