Haggarty Award

2021 Haggarty Award Recipient: Patrick G. Ryan, Jr. H'81

As an alumnus and parent of alums, Mr. Ryan has been an active member of the Sacred Heart community for over 40 years.  Committed to the progress and evolution of Sacred Heart Schools, Mr. Ryan has been an integral part of the schools’ expansion and success, and he has continually demonstrated his passion for Sacred Heart Schools.

Prior to his entrepreneurial business initiatives, civic leadership and founding of the Accelerate Institute, a school whose founding premise is that all children deserve access to an equal education, Pat Ryan H’81 started his career as a teacher and gang narcotics police officer on Chicago’s West Side. At the Chicago Police Academy, his classmates elected him “Outstanding Recruit” and his work in law enforcement included time as a narcotics investigator focused on major gang narcotics activity in the inner-city of Chicago; in this role, he received a commendation for leading a $1.1 million cocaine seizure.

Mr. Ryan’s urban experience as an officer and a teacher helped sharpen his vision as a social entrepreneur in education. That’s what led him to found the Alain Locke Charter School, located on Chicago's West Side, which achieved the #1 test score gains in the history of Illinois ISAT standard test—and was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as “one of seven charter schools in the United States best at closing the achievement gap.” Education reform is something he has been passionate about for over twenty years—and ultimately it led to the Accelerate Institute which focuses on developing the school leaders of today and tomorrow to close the achievement gap.

Pat is a three-time social and two-time technology entrepreneur who has created two companies that were recognized by Inc. Magazine as among the fastest growing software companies in the United States in its annual Inc. 500 rankings.

Mr. Ryan holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a Juris Doctor cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law. He is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and the Commercial Club of Chicago. Mr. Ryan is a Trustee of Northwestern University and a member of its Executive Committee as well as past Chairman of the Advisory Board of Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy. In 1999, he was named a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, as well as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In 2006, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management named Mr. Ryan Social Entrepreneur of the Year for his innovative work in urban education. Mr. Ryan and his wife, Lydia, live on Chicago's North Side with their three children, who also attended Sacred Heart Schools.