As 2013 Immediate Past President of NAGPS, Matt provides strategic guidance to the current Board of Directors and facilitates the transition of knowledge and organizational history from the prior leadership team while serving as a non-voting member of the 2013 Executive Committee and the Board of Directors.
During his term as President and CEO of NAGPS, Matt provided leadership and management of the Association and communicated the NAGPS vision and mission to members, partners, legislators and the public. During 2012 the Board of Directors achieved the following results:
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25% Membership Increase — Grew by 14 organizational members and continued to solidify the NAGPS position as the unifying voice of graduate and professional students in the US
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Summer Outreach Initiative — 8 weeks on the road visiting 30 universities and partner organizations to develop deeper on-the-ground connections and learning from other students what’s working at their GPSOs, what’s not, and how the Association can best serve their interests
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New Membership Benefit: Vision/Dental Insurance — Successfully negotiated access for members to vision and dental insurance—including coverage for dependents and spouses—at competitive prices through Humana
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Graduate Leadership Summit — A new event in the NAGPS porfolio of annual events for students to learn from high-profile public-sector leaders and experts while gaining practical, real-world knowledge in strategic planning and executive team building
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Advocacy Summit — An enhanced training experience in conjunction with twice-a-year Legislative Action Days for students to develop enhanced knowledge, skills, and connections to use during their subsequent visits to Capitol Hill and later in their careers as student advocates and leaders at their institution
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The New Postgraduate Voice — Recreation of the seasonal newsletter into a production-style magazine with feature-length articles tailored for graduate and professional students on current issues, advocacy and leadership development, and organizational management best practices
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New Strategic Planning Partnership — An engagement of engaged FaegreBakerDaniels, LLP, a leading advisory and advocacy firm in Washington, DC, to assist in developing a multi-year strategic plan that includes a comprehensive evaluation of the Association’s market position and public policy effectiveness
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White House Petition on Open Access — Helped achieve over 29,000 signatures on a petition to the White House calling for public access to federally funded research—a threshold which will now prompt a written response from the White House on this issue
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Washington Post Op-ed on Open Access — An article in the June 7th Washington Post calling for President Obama to make the knowledge resulting from the $60 billion in annual federal research publicly accessible (co-authored with the American Medical Student Association)
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World Bank Open Access Forum — Joined a panel of experts and advocates at a forum hosted by the World Bank to discuss the current state and future of Open Access in front of a live audience in Washington, DC, and streaming to institutions around the world
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Budapest General Assembly of the Right to Research Coalition — Convened in Budapest, Hungary with other student representative organizations across Europe and the Middle East to chart the future of Open Access across multiple constituencies and to reshape the governance structure of the Right to Research Coalition, the voice of nearly 7 million students pushing for greater open access to research
Prior to serving as President and CEO, Matt served as Director of Relations for the Association, developing strategic alliances with corporate, philanthropic, and legislative partners and overhauling the Association’s corporate sponsorship program to better reach new sponsors.
In addition to national service, Matt also serves as a student advocate on local and state issues on behalf of students in the State of Texas through campus-, regional-, and state-level advocacy.
Matt also works as a higher education analyst focusing on university fiscal management, student retention, and advancement. He currently serves as the Head of Analysis and Special Projects in the Office of the Vice President of Research and Economic Development at the University of North Texas, where he provides quantitative analysis for enterprise-level data-based initiatives.
In addition to public and not-for-profit service, Matt specializes in predictive analytics, econometric forecasting, behavioral modeling, statistical fraud detection, and managerial cost accounting, and has led data-based initiatives for banks, financial services firms, and management consultancies in the Dallas, TX area.
A native of Canyon, TX, Matt holds a bachelors degree in Psychology and Economics from Sam Houston State University, and an MBA and MS from the University of North Texas specializing in Decision Sciences and Managerial Accounting.