Returning to Washington, D.C., in 1990, Ambassador Ryan served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Assigned as Director of the Kuwait Task Force following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, she served in this capacity until her assignment to the United Nations Special Commission on the Elimination of Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction as the Commission's first Director of Operations.

She returned from New York to take up her duties as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs.

[2] In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Ryan as Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, and she began this position on May 12, 1993, overseeing the creation of the Office of Children's Issues in 1994.

In 1994, Ryan testified at a congressional hearing, advocating against a proposed provision to declare all members of Hamas as terrorists and prohibiting them from entering the United States.

[4][5] Ryan told Congress that consular officers were not given the intelligence necessary in order to detect and reject visa applicants suspected of committing terrorism.

[2] After retiring, Ryan volunteered as an Eucharistic minister for patients at George Washington University Hospital, she was an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at Saint Stephen Martyr Catholic Church, she completed a two-year program in parish administration at Trinity University, and she was a volunteer tutor for students in Washington, D.C.[2] Ryan died on April 25, 2006, of myelofibrosis.