Shirley Ryan has dedicated over 44 years to advancing the understanding and methods for early detection and intervention of motor development to take advantage of infant neuroplasticity and close the gap in infant movement abilities. 

Shirley Ryan is the founder Pathways.org which is used by millions of parents and healthcare professionals annually through its video-based website, app, and social media in every country except North Korea. Materials focus on promoting actionable steps for early detection and intervention for infants with movement, speech, and sensory delays. Over three hundred U.S. institutions of higher learning use the Pathways.org free material. Over 1 million U.S. infants annually are born with movement, speech, and sensory delays.  Shirley’s pioneering work to empower every infant’s fullest physical development has won numerous awards. Two U.S. Presidents have appointed Shirley Ryan to the National Council on Disability in Washington D.C., which advises the U.S. Congress on disability policy. For 33 years, Shirley Ryan co-founded, chaired, and lead the Pathways Pediatric Clinic where 10,000 infants received physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

In 2017, Pathways.org merged with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, acclaimed since 1991 as the number one U.S. rehabilitation hospital by the U.S. News and World Report. The Pathways.org Medical Round Table (P.M.R.T.) created in 1990 the first Infant Milestone Chart of typical and atypical development endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (A.A.P.). All Pathways.org material is in accord with the leadership of the P.M.R.T. and the A.A.P.

Shirley is a strong believer in the power of early infant detection, therapeutic intervention, universal accessibility, and the concept that all children can learn, beginning at birth. Currently Shirley’s work includes Project Corbett Ryan, a first-in-the-world, multi-site longitudinal randomized controlled trial aimed at evaluating the efficacy of an evidence-based physical therapy intervention for infants at risk of neuromotor delay.

Project Corbett Ryan, also known as the Corbett Ryan–Northwestern–Shirley Ryan AbilityLab–Lurie Children's Infant Early Detection, Intervention and Prevention Project, is designed to assess a one-year-long physical therapy intervention for infants at risk for motor delays using flexible body-worn sensors and video technology to provide high-resolution measures of motor development in infants. This study aims to harness infant neuroplasticity through an evidence-based approach integrating caregiver engagement, active learning, and environmental enrichment.

Shirley serves on the boards of University of Notre Dame, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs,  WTTW-PBS, has served on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and has chaired the Chicago Community Trust.  For nearly 50 years, Mrs. Ryan has led a Northwestern University graduate-level course entitled Learning For Life.

Shirley has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from her alma mater Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Catholic Theological Union, and has also received the Chicago History Museum Award for Distinguished Chicago Civic Leadership. 

Shirley received her B.A. from Northwestern University and studied at the Sorbonne of the University of Paris and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris.

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