Colleen Ryan, Monitoring Officer, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine
Colleen Ryan is a Monitoring Officer with the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) where she was stationed in Donetsk prior to the SMM evacuation from Ukraine. As a member of the SMM, Colleen serves as a Monitoring Officer involved in monitoring the ceasefire and security situation in accordance with the Misk Agreements, as Deputy Patrol Group Leader, where she assists with roster planning and patrol management, and as Gender Focal Point where she serves as the Gender Subject Matter Expert of her patrol group. Before joining the SMM, Colleen served as a police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department for 6.5 years where she served as a patrol officer in north Minneapolis and northeast Minneapolis. Additionally, she helped develop the department's mental health Co-Responder Unit that was operational from 2017-2020. Colleen completed her Master's in Human Rights in December 2021 at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs with a focus on Women, Peace, and Security issues with her Master's Thesis forcusing on gender-responsive security sector reform in Kosovo. Colleen is a 2014 graduate of the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) with a BA in Political Science.
