Empowered to Serve: How UofL Inspired 2025 A&S Champion Awardee Taylor Ryan to Create Change Today, Change Tomorrow

Meet Taylor Ryan (’15), founder and executive director of Change Today, Change Tomorrow, and one of our 2025 A&S Champions!  

A UofL Communication alumna with a certificate in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Transformation from the Urban and Public Affairs Department, Ryan has dedicated her life to fighting food injustice and public health disparities through hands-on community outreach in Louisville’s West End. A passionate advocate, single parent, and lifelong learner with two master’s degrees in Adult Education and Leadership Studies, Ryan embodies what it means to use an Arts & Sciences education for the greater good. Her story reminds us that real change starts with compassion, collaboration, and a commitment to serving others. We recently conducted a Q&A with Ryan as we are now accepting nominations for the 2026 A&S Champion Award, open to all alumni from the college.  

Q: You began Change Today, Change Tomorrow by asking your community directly, “What do we want to see? What can we do together?” How did that approach—grounded in listening and co-creation—shape not just your organization’s work but also how you think about leadership? 

One thing that makes me a good leader is my ability to listen and adapt and to be able to take the backseat when it's not my turn to lead. I'm really good at being that glue and connector piece. If I focus on food insecurity, and you focus on childcare, and someone else does education, and someone else is working on housing – we can all work together. I trust people in their lived experience to be the experts. I prefer to host a summit where the people who are most impacted by what's actually happening are the people who are leading the conversation. I think that's what helped me create Change Today, Change Tomorrow. I also think that what helps me in my leadership is my ability to sit back and listen to other people's roles, because I only know what I know. I would rather lean on other people who are the experts in their roles so that we can bring our expertise together to create an ecosystem. 

Q: Your journey includes building a nonprofit concept from a class project during your master’s at Marshall University. How do you see the role of “small seed” ideas in generating the kind of big-impact change in community? 

Small seeds are sown all over the city that some people will never know about. There's so much untapped talent in the ‘hood. There are so many untapped skills in the West End. A lot of my neighbors’ kids can flip up and down the street, do 16 back flips back and forth, but they've never been to a gymnastics class. So, I think sometimes it really just takes people investing in others that they would never expect to invest in. I started this organization in the back of my friend's house. If she wouldn't have given me housing to provide for me and my one-year-old at the time, I would not have been able to create this organization. 

People have to invest in other people. People have to start caring about each other. When we have that small seed idea, we never know how big it can be. I never knew we would serve 100,000 people in our first year because of COVID and the murder of Breonna Taylor, and the racial uprising amid a global pandemic. We now currently maintain serving 20,000 people a year with that small seed that I created in a classroom and that is how leadership development and investment works. People are cooking plates in their homes to feed people. People are couponing and buying extra bulk supplies to give away for free. People are doing things in small pockets that need big investments, and they come from small seeds that need sowing. 

Q: When you reflect on who you would nominate if you were selecting a future A&S Champion—someone embodying intellect, purpose, courage and community leadership—what are the qualities you’d look for and why are they meaningful in today’s world? 

I think it’s about longevity and impact. UofL really shaped who I am today — if I hadn’t have gone there, I don’t know that I would’ve ever started Change Today, Change Tomorrow. A lot of what I learned came from being involved in student organizations, not just the classroom. 

So, I’d love to see future A&S Champions who have that same kind of lasting impact — people who made a difference at UofL, kept growing through their careers, and are still creating change years later. 

And for me, honesty, transparency, and dependability are huge. I value people who are real — who build trust, ask hard questions, and help make sure great ideas have a solid foundation. 

Q: How did your time at UofL lay the foundation for where you are today and how did it feel to be named an A&S Champion in 2025? 

My experience at UofL really set the stage for everything I do now. I was deeply involved in community service and student organizations. Through those roles, I learned how to write grants, fundraise, market events, and lead large teams — all skills I use every day at Change Today, Change Tomorrow. I actually started college at Mississippi State studying software engineering, but when I transferred to UofL, I found my purpose. Switching to Communication and earning a certificate in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Transformation helped me align my work with my values. Being recognized as an A&S Champion feels full circle — it’s humbling to be honored by the university that helped me discover who I really am and what I’m meant to do. 

✨ Know an A&S alum making a difference like Taylor? Nominate them for the 2026 A&S Champions Award!