Dan Ruby (Oregon)

Dan Ruby is an educator, nonprofit and public-sector leader, musician, artist and elected official based in Ashland, Oregon. His career has centered on the intersection of education, science, community institutions and civic life. Raised in the Great Basin, he emerged in Reno’s independent music scene as a songwriter and musician while developing a parallel career at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center. His work included Crushstory and the Wax Models, as well as visual-art and interdisciplinary projects involving Nevada Museum of Art and Holland Project.

At Fleischmann, Ruby’s work expanded from K–12 and public Earth and space science education into NASA-supported field research, astronomy, teacher education and hands-on career and technical education. He participated in NASA Spaceward Bound, the Earth-Mars Cave Detection Program and SOFIA airborne astronomy, while helping develop multi-year NASA engineering programs with Washoe County students. By his departure as director in 2018, the planetarium was serving tens of thousands of visitors annually, including approximately 10,000 K–12 students on field trips.

Throughout the Reno years, these were not separate identities. Music, visual art, science, museums, cycling and education repeatedly intersected through projects involving Reno Bike Project, Holland Project, Nevada Museum of Art, Fleischmann Planetarium and other institutions. His 2018 album 33–45, credited to Dan Ruby and Friends, brought those strands together explicitly through original music, visual and conceptual art, and references to Voyager and Pioneer.

Ruby moved with his family to Oregon in 2018 to become executive director of Scienceworks Museum in Ashland. His subsequent work moved increasingly toward community resilience, health, housing, fundraising and public service, including Firebrand Resiliency Collective, Rogue Community Health, the Rogue Community College Foundation, housing initiatives and election to the Ashland School Board.