COO of School of Rock

Stacey Ryan is the Chief Operating Officer of School of Rock, the most revolutionary music education program in the world. Stacey and her team are responsible for operational excellence, safety and brand compliance for the global franchise system. She leads efforts throughout 15 countries to consistently deliver outstanding technical learning and personal development of 60,000 students in a safe, inclusive, and encouraging environment. The result is enriched and improved with a specific focus on the emotional well being of students.

Stacey is passionate about leaning into and navigating complexities specific to women in corporate leadership roles. With this passion, she developed and launched a Community Resource Group, FrontWomen, which meets quarterly. Discussions are focused on womens’ empowerment and how to develop strong leadership skills in a predominantly male-driven industry. In her personal time, Stacey is an advocate for animal rights and social justice reform often volunteering her time at sanctuaries and with exonerated individuals.

You can follow Stacey on LinkedIn HERE

Achievements for SheRocks Awards
Stacey Ryan is the Chief Operating Officer of School of Rock, the most revolutionary music education program in the world. Stacey and her team are responsible for operational excellence, safety and brand compliance for the global franchise system. She leads efforts throughout 15 countries to consistently deliver outstanding technical learning and personal development of 60,000 students in a safe, inclusive, and encouraging environment. The result is enriched and improved with a specific focus on the emotional well-being of students.

In 2020 when the world shut down because of the global pandemic, Stacey charged her team and helped lead the organization to keep the music going. With a focus on mental health, she was laser-focused on being there for their students, staff, and the community. They pivoted their entire operation to a fully remote experience with a priority of safety. She tapped into her network of incredible musician friends and created unique experiences for School of Rock students to virtually meet professionals in the music industry and ask questions. They kept their community of gigging instructors teaching and earning a paycheck when everything else in their industry came to a screeching halt. They partnered with The Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide to help educate parents on early warning signs and how to help their teens through the mental health crisis. Having gone from 30k students at the start of 2020, dropping down to 26k during the pandemic, she is now proudly helping enrich the lives of 60k students worldwide. Ultimately this dark time period is when Stacey accomplished a lot of the work she is most proud of in her role.

Stacey is passionate about leaning into and navigating complexities specific to women in corporate leadership roles. With this passion, in 2020, she developed and launched a Community Resource Group, FrontWomen. The purpose of this group is to discuss and navigate complexities specific to women in leadership roles, specifically in corporate America. This group is open to the public and meets quarterly with specific agendas. Discussions are focused on womens’ empowerment and how to develop strong leadership skills in a predominantly male-driven industry. There are also quarterly newsletters that highlight interviews with incredible female role models, book recommendations, and key resources. Having been graced with incredible mentors throughout her life and career, Stacey sees this as an opportunity to pay it forward and help others do the same. Currently, over 40 women, men, and non-binary individuals consistently join these workshop sessions and over 200 people are signed up to receive their quarterly newsletter. In March of 2022, Stacey and her FrontWomen partner, Jill, joined forces with Noise For Now, a non-profit that enables artists and entertainers to connect with and financially support grassroots organizations that work in the field of Reproductive Justice. Together they hosted a night of music in Austin, TX, and successfully raised over $10k. All funds raised went to support the Afiya Center which focuses on transforming the lives, health, and overall well-being of Black women and girls by providing refuge, education, and resources on reproductive health care. Stacey and Jill have big goals for FrontWomen and hope to become a resource and safe space for thousands of people in the future. They are consistently energized and inspired by this group and the feedback they receive.

In her personal time, Stacey is an advocate for animal rights and social justice reform often volunteering her time at sanctuaries and with exonerated individuals. Helping those less fortunate, regardless of species, is something that fuels her soul. Stacey has spent many weekends helping groom and care for rescued farm animals and teaching them kindness and how to trust again. She helps raise awareness of the reality of animal agriculture and laboratory testing, often helping others learn how to navigate these changes in their own lives.

Her newest passion has been in partnership with Jason Flom, founder of Lava Republic and a founding board member of the Innocence Project. Having met through their shared business of music, Stacey quickly learned from Jason all the inequalities and the crises of wrongful incarcerations. Wanting to help, Stacey dove in head first and started mentoring exonerees. For the past 5 years, Stacey has worked with and supported hundreds of exonerees in her personal time. Since 2021 she has partnered closely with the founder of Pandemic of Love, a grassroots, volunteer-led, and formalized mutual aid community, to crowdsource items needed, funds to help pay bills, secure housing, enhance education, and anything else needed. She develops strong friendships and helps these individuals navigate the challenges of reentry after years of being locked up, and innocent. She often says that she has learned some of the most important life lessons through these individuals and is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be part of their lives.

QUOTES FROM FRONTWOMEN FEEDBACK SURVEYS AND EMAILS:

"I don’t have questions per se, but I just want to say thanks for hosting this incredibly insightful call. I’ve learned a lot today, and I think the world would greatly benefit from having more amazing women like yourselves in leadership roles. It’s such a pleasure to work with you all, and I consider you all my SoR mentors"

FrontWomen is a great space for LGBTQIA+ members of our community as well. I have received a lot of benefit from being a part of this initiative and it has made me a better employer and employee. 'Lean In' was an especially resonant read for me on multiple levels!

I really love this group and appreciate the work. I always get so much out of the discussions. As someone who's been on the receiving end of some gendered biases recently, I'm wondering how I can safely reach out to my fellow FrontWomen on how to address it. I think I could gain a lot from the support of the group.

It was awesome to see how excited the community is to have a resource group like this one. Everyone seems passionate about supporting one another and making any real changes we can.

I was overwhelmed by the vulnerability and honesty of participants and overall passion for this topic. That is what you need to impact change.

This was an incredible forum to start looking at how we can create a bigger space for the women in our SOR Community. This is an area that we can grow, and I am excited that we are holding this space.

School of Rock has an amazing team dedicated to inclusion and diversity and has a real interest in advancing those values within the company so that our students' experience is the best it can be.

We have a fierce legion of females, and non-female allies, who want to see a shift and evolution from leadership and management to curriculum and resources to more wholly uplift all of the women within our community.