Janine Ryan

The mission of the Events department at Heritage is to deliver exceptional event experiences uniquely designed to advance Heritage’s mission. As Director of Events at The Heritage Foundation, Janine’s main focus is building strategy for Heritage’s events portfolio, working collaboratively with other departments to bring new event concepts to the table, hiring talent and keeping a pulse on the events industry, and creating an agile team structure that easily fluctuates with the needs of the organization.

Janine oversees a large and dynamic team of event professionals at Heritage. One part of her team exclusively focuses on managing internal event spaces, which includes 23 conference rooms and two large auditoriums for roughly 7,000 events a year. The other part of the team, executes roughly 75 events a year across the country including fundraising events, educational conferences, multi-day retreats, and cross country tours ranging from 50 to 15,000 attendees such as donors, coalition partners, members of Congress, presidential candidates, policymakers, Capitol Hill staffers, and more.

The most notable events are the 2012 CNN, AEI and Heritage Republican Presidential Debate at Constitution Hall, 2013 Defund Obamacare Ten-City Tour rallying activists around the country, the 2015 Presidential Candidate Forum at the Bon Secours Arena with over 15,000 attendees and eight presidential candidates participating, and the 2017 Presidential Inauguration Open House with over 2,000 attendees.

Janine joined The Heritage Foundation as an Event Planner in 2010 and quickly moved up in her role to become Director in 2013. In 2014, Janine was selected to participate in Heritage’s Leadership Development Program, a highly competitive program designed to identify and train some of the best future leaders. The program includes executive coaching, a 360-degree review, and Executive Education at a top tier business school. Before joining Heritage, Janine worked in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at The George Washington University as an Event Coordinator where she provided event support to over 260 colleagues and volunteers for about 100 event a year with a total budget of over $1M.

Janine graduated The George Washington University as a Division I athlete and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. She also earned a diploma from the International Advertising Association. Originally from Jacksonville, FL, she now resides in Fairfax, VA with her husband and two dogs.


virtual events fundraising
Virtual events during COVID: reimagining canceled events

Don’t despair over canceled events and extended quarantine procedures. Instead, be creative and see how you can go virtual to engage your audience.