When the outgoing human rights director for the National Security Council was a scholarship student at the University of Hawaii, he thought about dropping out.

Since September 2022, Ryan Berney, a 35-year-old Kalani High School graduate, has advised President Joe Biden’s team about human rights developments around the world.

The National Security Council is the president’s primary forum for security and foreign policy decision making with senior advisers and Cabinet officials. The NSC coordinates these policies across all federal agencies.

It is rarefied policy air that Berney works in, and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Holy Land are at the top of his pile of foreign policy priorities.

“As the human rights director at the NSC, a big part of my job is to help keep White House principals informed of human rights developments around the world,” said Berney in an interview with the Honolulu Star- Advertiser from his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House compound. “It is to help coordinate the interagency (effort) to make sure all the varying missions that each department and agency has … ultimately work together … so we can have as full a response as we can.

”Gaza and Ukraine are very important issues right now of which the White House is very engaged on. You have seen the number of times the president has spoken on this issue, the national security adviser … as well as White House officials. But I think it’s important to say that in addition to doing everything we can to respond to these crises, we are also still paying attention to human rights (developments) that are happening around the world.”

It takes a delicate, complex balance to navigate Ukraine and Gaza while ensuring the U.S. addresses human rights violations everywhere.

“We are working, on all cylinders, to advance the respect for human rights everywhere,” Berney said.

Berney moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2012 to start an internship with the U.S. Department of State.

It was then that he fell “in love” with human rights work. Before joining the NSC, Berney held various roles in the State Department.

Starting in February 2012, he worked as a foreign affairs officer, providing policy support to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs.

In June 2012 Berney began a 10-month stint as a policy officer covering the Middle East in the bureau’s Office of International Religious Freedom before moving on to work as a program specialist in the bureau’s Office of Global Programs.

From January 2015 until July 2022, Berney worked as the East Asia and Pacific Team lead in the Office of Global Programs.

In July 2022 he started a three-month posting as the Political and Economic Section chief at U.S. Embassy Port Louis, Mauritius. In September 2022 he assumed his current role on the NSC.

Berney maintains that his days are “not as glamorous” as people might think when they hear he works in the White House.

“I am in constant meetings, talking with either our (interagency) experts, talking to other individuals here in the White House, talking to public stakeholders, including community members … both in terms of American citizens and other community groups interested in our foreign policy or the nexus between events that are happening internationally” and their impact at home, Berney said. “Every one of those conversations is either learning more about a specific situation that has been brought to my attention, sharing more information about what this administration and the government is doing, or strategizing.”

It is extremely important for Berney to maintain his roots in Hawaii, where his family, friends and early career mentors live.

“Everything that I do here … I try to channel the spirit of Hawaii and try to look out for the interests of Hawaii to the extent that I can,” he said. “Hopefully, one day I can go back to Hawaii, where I can go back to my roots and be working on issues that are more directly related to Hawaii to help the community there and to get more people interested in government service, at any level.”

Berney is a “proud Kalani Falcons alum.” He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a Bachelor of Arts in conflict studies and peace resolution.

It was a class at UH focused on public policy and research that exposed Berney to the work that local nongovernmental organizations do for the community. The course work inspired him to “do more to help others.”

Berney, who counts Native Hawaiian among his ancestries, credits professor Sue Haglund, an educational specialist with the honors program and affiliate faculty with the Ethnic Studies Department, with nurturing his early interests in public service.

He took her Public Policy 301 class in the fall of 2007.

“As an Indigenous woman myself — I’m Dule from Panama … I see myself in students when I teach,” she told the Star-Advertiser in an interview.

Students who display “motivation, determination — students always ask questions about what they would like to do outside of the class, and they try to find guidance” — are the ones that have a chance to be successful public servants.

“You see it in their writings, their assignments, the questions they ask in class. Questions that graduate students would ask. You find those characteristics and mentor them as best you can. And Ryan had those characteristics,” she said.

Berney’s time at UH was funded by scholarships and financial aid.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid process and applying “up and down” the list of available scholarships was a stressful process that taught him perseverance.

Times were tough, he said, and he thought of dropping out.

The UH Manoa Counseling and Student Development Center, Haglund and others helped keep him in school. Berney credits a “very strong community of support” that is “very unique to Hawaii” as key to finding solutions and reali­z­ing his academic success.

In August 2009, Haglund brought him to the state Legislature, where he started a five-month stint with state Sen. Les Ihara Jr., the majority policy leader.

In an interview with the Star-Advertiser, Ihara and his office manager, Melissa Vomvoris, lauded Berney’s professional abilities and service, noting he built his career through hard work and persistence.

“He just worked for the interim, but what we found is he was just an incredible human being — so smart analyzing data, research capabilities. … He was really into ethics and open agreement.”

Ihara knew of Berney through Berney’s father, both constituents. Ihara said he was immediately impressed with Berney’s confidence in hard work and focus at a young age.

Public school students like Berney who fund their own education to create a career in pubic service should know that many opportunities and mentors are here to help.

“You can meet him once and you won’t forget Ryan Berney,” said Ihara, who still visits with Berney, most recently at a lunch in Washington, D.C. “He had a sense that he could make a difference in the world. He was a local kid from Kaimuki, but he had a sense he could make a difference — this guy, it’s an attitude. It’s a sense that we can, we can do it in Hawaii and we can do it for the world.”

Berney wants local kids who think they don’t have any advantages to realize they can accomplish whatever they want. Every moment he thought of quitting or tempering expectations for himself, Hawaii’s community spirit came to his aid.

He never would have moved to Washington, D.C., without that encouragement, he said.

“Do not stress about taking a chance,” he said. “It really is the importance of the community in Hawaii that really uplifts people. It truly is that sense of community that will help people succeed, even if you had challenges at school and at home. You can still do something if you want to.”