Ryan Johnson enters his third season with the Northern Colorado women's basketball team and his second as an assistant coach. In his first season with the Bears, Johnson was the director of basketball operations.

Johnson assists the Bears in recruiting, handles a good portion of the team's scouting and is charge of guard player development. He has also worked closely with Coach White on developing the Bears' Fast Break Club, a booster group dedicated to women's basketball at Northern Colorado.

Johnson came to Northern Colorado from Utah State, where he spent 2005-06 as an assistant coach. Johnson was responsible for assisting both offensive and defensive planning, drill execution and development of the forwards and posts, with other duties in film-exchange and off-campus recruiting. He was also responsible for academic monitoring, resulting in seven student athletes garnering WAC all academic accolades, while the team achieved a 3.3 GPA.

Prior to Utah State, Johnson was the director of operations at Colorado State. At CSU, he assisted the program in several administrative areas including film exchange, scout prep, camp organization and booster club liaison.

Johnson also spent 10 years at the middle and high school level working with club teams in Colorado. Throughout that time, he studied basketball fundamentals, individual development skills as well as offensive and defensive systems. Several players he mentored earned Division I basketball scholarships. He also coached at the at Arvada West High School and Wheat Ridge High School for six years, helping both teams to Sweet 16 appearances and the latter to an Elite 8 showing.

Johnson earned his bachelor's degree in biological sciences from DePauw University (Ind.) in 1995. He received his teacher licensure from Regis University in 1998. In 2001, Johnson earned his master's of science in management from the University of Denver.