The day after graduating from the University of Missouri, Katy Ryan headed two hours west to Kansas City, a Midwestern metropolis that had often lured Katy and her college companions for weekend trips filled with food, fun, and shopping. More than five years later, the Columbia, Missouri native freely proclaims her undying love for a city that continually reinvents itself. As a real estate writer for the Kansas City Star, Katy covered the city’s multi-million dollar downtown renaissance, a development boom that's pumped new life into the heart of the city.

Katy continues to combine her two great loves—Kansas City and writing—into covering business, real estate, and lifestyle topics for various publications, including the Kansas City Star, KC Business, CEO, Midwest Commercial Journal, and KCFreePress.com, among others.

After living on the Country Club Plaza and in the Northland, Katy moved with her fiance and two cats to a loft in downtown's River Market, where she now feels truly at home. Her weekends are spent exploring restaurants, museums, and shops—adventures that always begin with fresh-squeezed lemonade at the City Market. Although Indian and Middle Eastern foods are favorites, Katy often worships at the altar of the city's unofficial cuisine, barbecue—that is, when her vegetarian husband-to-be is otherwise occupied.