Buck Ryan, director of the Citizen Kentucky Project at the University of Kentucky’s Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Media who is known internationally for his Maestro Concept for storytelling. The Citizen Kentucky Project is designed to engage young people in civic life.
 
Ryan has taught at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism, Shanghai University and Jilin University in China, and Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia. He has published articles with Chinese and Russian scholars on topics including journalism education, young voters and community journalism. He also has produced five civic life documentaries for Kentucky Educational Television, including a national award winner, and he has published three books on editing.