Ryan Sommers Baum
Encyclopedia
Ryan Dowell Baum is an American former child actor who is best known as J.B. Halliburton on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...

 original series The Famous Jett Jackson
The Famous Jett Jackson
The Famous Jett Jackson is a joint Canadian and American Disney Channel Original Series coming-of-age television series for children ages 12–16 about a boy named Jett Jackson who plays a teenage secret-agent on a fictional TV show-within-a-show called Silverstone...

.

Biography

In 2001 Ryan graduated from Guilderland High School
Guilderland High School
Guilderland High School is a public senior high school, located in Guilderland Center, New York. It is part of the Guilderland Central School District. Constructed in 1953, the high school has since undergone additions in 1955, 1960, 1997 and 2010...

, in Guilderland Center, New York
Guilderland Center, New York
Guilderland Center is a hamlet in the town of Guilderland, Albany County, New York. The hamlet lies along New York Route 146 and the Black Creek, a tributary of the Normans Kill.-History:...

. He then attended Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....

 at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 and graduated in 2005, with a BFA in Theatre. Ryan completed Master of Divinity studies at Pacific School of Religion
Pacific School of Religion
Pacific School of Religion is an ecumenical seminary located in Berkeley, California. It maintains covenantal relationships with the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church and the Disciples of Christ, providing all necessary expectations for candidates to their ordained ministries....

, in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

 in 2010. He was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in covenant with First Congregational UCC of Oakland, California and the Bay Association.

While earning his undergraduate degree from NYU, Ryan traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to study the cultural impact of performance poetry in the struggle against apartheid and in building the new post-apartheid South Africa. During his time there, he became actively involved in the ministry of the Johannesburg Quaker community, helping to use theater to educate township youth about HIV and AIDS, and volunteering to operate a mobile soup kitchen in inner-city Johannesburg. It was here that Dowell Baum felt his call to ministry.
During his college years he also worked as a counselor at Friends Camp, a Quaker summer camp in South China, Maine
South China, Maine
South China is a village in the town of China in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. It is one of four villages in China.-Communities:South China Lake is home to Friends Camp, a Quaker summer camp currently run by Nat Shed, which has been active for over 50 years. As well, it is the home of a...

.

In the summer of 2005, Ryan worked as the director of the STAR (Summer Theater at the 'Rep) theater program in Albany, NY, in which teens from the area write and perform their own musical. The theme of their musical was mythology, and Ryan brought some of the cultural knowledge he learned in South Africa into the show, including a folk song and story.

In 2007-8 Ryan did ministry in the city of Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

 in collaboration with First Congregational United Church of Christ and Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, building relationships with community members, especially youth, who are caught in cycles of violence, in order to provide compassionate pastoral presence and training in community and self transformation through active nonviolence.

In 2008-9 Ryan served as an Americorps*VISTA at the College of Wooster. He is perhaps best known for his appearance on the hit radio program The Josh and Jeff Experience.

In 2010-2011 Ryan spent a year working as a Global Ministry Fellow in Zambia with the ecumenical organization Theological Education by Extension in Zambia (TEEZ), helping train lay leaders for the work of the Church. He worked jointly at TEEZ with his wife, Molly. Afterwhich they spent 3 months traveling and learning about the Church in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia.

Ryan officially changed his last name to Dowell Baum when he was married to Molly Dowell, a graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary
San Francisco Theological Seminary
San Francisco Theological Seminary is a graduate school affiliated with Presbyterian Church located in San Anselmo, California. Founded in 1871, SFTS is a graduate theological institution that is focused on graduate theological education in the Reformed tradition...

 (SFTS), on August 18, 2007, in a private ceremony held in Atchison, Kansas
Atchison, Kansas
Atchison is a city situated along the Missouri River in the eastern part of Atchison County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,021. It is the county seat and most populous city of Atchison County...

. He is now "Ryan Sommers Dowell Baum."

Filmography

  • Jett Jackson: The Movie
    Jett Jackson: The Movie
    Jett Jackson: The Movie is a Canadian 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie based on the Disney Channel series The Famous Jett Jackson.-Plot:...

    (2001).... J.B. Halliburton
  • Bad Haircut (2001).... Neil

External links

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