Matthew S Email & Phone Number

Matt serves ideas that build agency + dignity in young people and oft-overlooked communities, rooted in his own experiences navigating systems that were not designed for him. He is energized by service as a translator bridging policy, communications and practice. He has been fortunate to collaborate w/great leaders across the arts, who have found his insights revealing. A few highlights that respect NDAs:-An early and significant contributor to GERRYMANDERING (TriBeCa Film Festival, 2010) Message: communities should know more about this practice and be better heard in decisions about how they are represented. The story of the fight for California was told in this picture.-A researcher supporting the production and publication of ACCEPTANCE Message: High Schoolers have a chance to own their journey via this process.-Director of a teacher-training center @ Fordham that reached Title I teachers and piloted major national initiatives of The College Board. Message: Teachers can leverage their creativity [+standards] to spark passion for learning. -An Education Policy advisor to Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee who advocated for school choice in the Ocean State. Not that there is any silver bullet to educational inequity.Message: Changed the context and conversation about education reform. Deborah Gist, who served him, who won plaudits from President Obama and TIME for being amongst the 100 most influential thinkersAn ability to engage humbly and authentically with a broad sweep of people, from recovering meth addicts to dignitaries to Nirvana's Krist Novoselic has led to interesting journeys. Personal Values:• Optimistic: No Knicks fan would last long without it.• Driven (to Self-Improvement): Reminded of the difficulty of changing systems by my own personal to-do list. This keeps me grounded.• EQ: Teams of smart, creative people will inevitably have differences to be bridged. Engaging intently and emphatically matters. It is often not what is said but how it is heard that matters. I aspire to be considered candid and kind by colleagues.Academic Background: (TLDR-version):•Nerd: Won merit fellowships from Columbia University's graduate law, public policy and journalism schools;• Collaborator: Supported a Pulitzer-Prize winner and a New York Times bestselling author to tell + share heroic student stories;• A continuing student of change-making, most recently through informal power (a reader of Caro and watcher of The Crown) and competing philanthropic models;

Listed skills include Journalism, Community Outreach, Public Relations, Publishing, and 7 others.

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  Director

  Fordham University

  New York, Ny, Us