Ryan Gilfillan

Name: Ryan Gilfillan
City/State: San Diego, CA
Branch of Service: Navy
Dates of Service: Nov 2001 to Dec 2021
Last Rank Held: E8
Military Occupation: EOD
Current Occupation: PhD Student and Researcher
X: NA
Instagram: NA
Facebook: NA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-gilfillan1/
TikTok: NA

Ryan outside of the military:

I am a father before anything else. I have two sons, and it is a privilege to watch them grow into remarkable young men. They are the source of my motivation and inform everything I do.

After retiring from the Navy, I began a learning journey that has yet to slow. Where my career once involved deployments and periods of temporary assigned duty, my days are now filled with long hours of reading, writing, and research. Like many veterans, I found the transition to post-military purpose challenging. Once that path became clear, however, it brought back a familiar sense of focus and direction.

Outside of my academic and professional pursuits, I enjoy watching San Diego Padres baseball and college football (Fight On!!!). I also love going on trips and riding roller coasters with my kids.

Ryan on joining the IAVA Cavalry:

I am joining the IAVA Cavalry to help policymakers make informed, data-driven decisions for the veteran community—decisions that are both quantitatively rigorous and qualitatively meaningful. Data without context is meaningless, and feelings without facts undermine sound decision-making. The Cavalry provides a platform to bridge evidence and lived experience, ensuring veteran policy is grounded in both empirical insight and human reality.

How the military experience affected Ryan’s personal growth:

My time in the Navy shaped me to think in systems, lead under uncertainty, and take responsibility for outcomes rather than intentions. Operating in high-consequence environments taught me that trust, preparation, and clear communication are not abstract values; they are operational necessities. I learned to make decisions with incomplete information, to integrate diverse perspectives quickly, and to remain accountable for the human impact of those decisions.

The military also instilled a deep respect for institutions and the people within them. I saw firsthand how well-designed systems enable individuals to perform at their best, and how poorly aligned systems can unintentionally create risk. That understanding now guides my approach to leadership, research, and policy: focusing less on individual failure and more on the structural conditions that shape behavior.

Ultimately, my service reinforced a commitment to service beyond uniform, using discipline, evidence, and empathy to improve the systems that support those who serve.

IAVA’s policy priorities that are the most pressing:

While I support all of IAVA’s priorities, two resonate strongly with my work: veteran health and suicide prevention, and long-term psychological well-being across the veteran lifespan.

IAVA’s own mental health research and white papers emphasize that suicide and psychological injury must be understood as systemic, public-health challenges rather than isolated clinical events. While transition support matters, the data indicate that suicide risk often emerges years—sometimes decades—after separation. This points to deeper issues around sustained loss of connection, identity, and purpose, and the absence of durable social structures to replace the healthy, built-in relationships of military service.

My work is oriented toward understanding how meaning, belonging, and social integration shape veteran well-being over time, and how policy can move upstream from crisis response toward prevention.

IAVA’s policy priorities with the strongest personal connection for Ryan:

A few years ago, I lost two veteran friends to suicide on the same day. That experience reshaped how I understand veteran mental health—not as a moment of crisis, but as the cumulative result of lost connection, eroded purpose, and the absence of durable social systems.

What struck me most was not how recently either had left the military, but how long they had been navigating life afterward. Their deaths reinforced what the data increasingly show: suicide risk often emerges years, even decades, after service, when the structure, identity, and built-in community of military life have faded without being fully replaced.

For this reason, the IAVA policy priority I feel most personally connected to is veteran mental health and suicide prevention, particularly approaches that treat it as a public-health and systems challenge rather than an individual failure. I am drawn to policies that emphasize sustained connection, meaning, and social integration across the veteran lifespan—because prevention depends not only on access to care, but on whether veterans continue to feel seen, valued, and connected long after the uniform comes off.