More Than a Degree
Ryan Grulich (’25, M.A. COML) chose Gonzaga for personal development, but it’s given him much more as he navigates creative and professional pursuits.
When Ryan Grulich graduated in May 2025 from Gonzaga’s Communication and Leadership Studies master’s program, it was the culmination of five COVID-interrupted years in pursuit of a deeper understanding of Jesuit principles of communication. And he learned as much through his interactions outside his classwork as he did in his remote-learning lectures and study sessions.
The 42-year-old Grulich had already lived several professional lives before enrolling at Gonzaga: touring musician, filmmaker, senior vice president and CEO of a live-events production company, and now director of business development in the fast-evolving world of artificial intelligence.
His academic journey was never about chasing a title or a pay raise, he says. It was about something deeper.
“For me, it was more of a mountain that I just wanted to climb,” Grulich says. “It wasn’t going to bump my pay grade or necessarily open any specific doors. There was no motive in that way. It was really just about personal development.”
Grulich enrolled in January 2020, just two months before COVID-19 changed everything. What might have been a two-year program stretched into five, as the pandemic disrupted life and work.
“There was no analog for COVID in living memory,” Grulich reflects. “In 1917 during the Spanish flu, they still played the World Series. We had nothing to point to and say, ‘We’ve been through this before.’”
For Grulich, Gonzaga’s Jesuit values — especially cura personalis, care for the whole person — became a lifeline.
That human-centered approach mattered most when Ryan hit a wall and considered leaving the program.
“I had a moment where I wasn’t sure if I could stick with it,” he admits. “But my professors and the Center for Cura Personalis talked me through it. That whole moment catalyzed it for me to stay in and keep going — even if I had to take breaks — because I knew I had permission to be human and still accomplish my goal. Sometimes that goal was the thing keeping me going.”
Ryan’s passion for communication runs deep.
“I’m 42 now, but I started my own little production company when I was 15,” he says. “I’ve been in live communications, entertainment, film, and media for my entire life.”
After years as a touring musician, Ryan shifted to live event production, managing audio-visual experiences for major events in the Seattle area. Later, he turned to filmmaking, drawn to the creative rhythm of projects with a clear beginning and end. “You never make the same film twice,” he says.
During the pandemic, Ryan poured his energy into a true-crime documentary, “The Lady in the Lake,” about the 1937 murder of Hallie Illingworth in Port Angeles. Her body was discovered in Lake Crescent in 1940, and Ryan’s film explored the chilling case that had haunted local lore. Released in 2024, the documentary premiered in Seattle and is now streaming on multiple platforms.
No matter how his “day job” duties have evolved, Grulich always has a creative project — or several — in the works.
“Filmmaking gives me a way to keep telling stories,” Grulich says. “It’s endlessly compelling.”
Post-pandemic, Grulich jumped from Seattle to Florida, and from producing live events to working in the blossoming field of artificial intelligence. It’s a leap that might seem surprising, but for Grulich it felt natural.
“Whether it’s music, live events, or AI, it’s all about creating experiences that connect people,” he says.
Today, Grulich is working as a consultant for AI company Metropolis Technologies as well consulting on the fast-evolving technology for a company in the United Kingdom. “I’m privy to this technology and seeing how it unfolds,” he explains. “But the ethics of it are so new, and they require a standpoint that capitalism doesn’t typically allow. A purely transactional education doesn’t prepare you for that.”
That’s where his Gonzaga education makes a huge difference, he says.
Grulich says the Gonzaga experience gave him more than a degree. It gave him resilience, perspective, and a renewed sense of vocation. In addition to his consulting work, he’s tapping those skills as a strategy coach for both individuals and business leaders.
“Cura personalis resonates with me,” Grulich says. “It’s about caring for the whole person, and that’s what I try to bring into my work now.”
From Texas roots to Seattle stages, from pandemic online classrooms to Florida boardrooms, Grulich’s journey is proof that reinvention isn’t about leaving your past behind — it’s about carrying it forward into new possibilities.