Ryo Horiike earned a PhD in Health Science from Osaka University and served five years as a governmental public health nurse in Kochi Prefecture, where he led responses to the 2018 Western Japan Heavy Rain disaster and, as lead infection-control nurse at the Susaki Public Health Center, managed tuberculosis and broader infectious disease control, including COVID-19 case investigations, contact tracing, specimen collection, cluster management, and local health-care system coordination. He transitioned to academia in 2022 and has held his current post since 2025. As the first administrative public health nurse to receive the Japan Public Health Association Encouragement Award, he developed G-CHAM, a GIS-based community health assessment framework, and delivers trainings to universities and local governments to advance evidence-based PHN practice (with a book on GIS community diagnosis scheduled for publication in August 2025). In disaster health, he released a PHN support WebGIS and conducted field surveys for the Noto Peninsula earthquake and severe rain events, and created VR training using 360-degree imagery. He serves on the Health Crisis Management Committee of the National Council of Public Health Nurse Educational Institutions and collaborates with the MHLW-funded Ojima research group on layered health-medical-welfare management in disasters.