Meet The Leadership

Ryan Torma, Executive Director of Professional Development and LearningLife Programs

Ryan Torma is the Executive Director of Professional Development and LearningLife programs offered through the University of Minnesota College of Continuing and Professional Studies (CCAPS). The CCAPS portfolio includes a wide array of classroom-based and online professional development courses and certificate programs designed to help individuals and organizations achieve their goals; customized training services; conferences that connect academia with policy-makers and practitioners; and personal enrichment programming designed to bring leading-edge scholarship and research undertaken throughout the University to an informed and involved citizenry. The range of topics and learning solutions is wide, but everyone involved with the programs – faculty, staff, community and industry leaders, and content experts – shares a deep commitment to the unique needs of adult learners, and a mission to translate theory and research to practice.

Torma holds a doctorate of Education in Higher Education Leadership from Bethel University, where his research focused on design thinking as an approach to solving complex problems in higher education. He earned a master of arts from Luther Seminary, where he studied the intersection of media, meaning, education, and technology; his bachelor of arts degree is from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism.