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Matt Williams
Chief Operating Officer and Vice President, Policy and Advocacy
Areas of Expertise: strategic planning, state and federal policy, collaboration
“Transforming education is a team effort – everyone has a role.”
As the Chief Operating Officer, Matt is responsible for strategic and annual planning, business strategy, staffing and management of the Board of Directors and the functioning of the Foundation’s Executive Leadership Team. As the Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, he is responsible for directing both federal and state policy, advocacy and strategic foresight (future of education work) on behalf of the Foundation. Matt assists KnowledgeWorks in building and maintaining relationships with policymakers and partners to advance their initiatives, advancing policy priorities and directing thought leadership for the Foundation.
Prior to his current role, Matt served as Senior Director of National Advocacy and Partnerships for KnowledgeWorks and prior to that, Director of Public Affairs. In both roles, he built the organization’s policy and advocacy presence at the federal and state levels. Matt also served as the Foundation Officer for KnowledgeWorks. In this role, he was responsible for assisting the President and CEO by leading and providing support for priority initiatives, communicating on the vision and strategies of the Foundation nationally and managing the relationship with the Board of Directors. Matt joined KnowledgeWorks in 2006 as a Program Officer in college and career access, providing leadership for the national community college initiative Achieving the Dream, P-16 and other college and career access programming. He is the former Director for GEAR UP Waco, a comprehensive, collaborative grant project focused on increasing college access in Waco, Texas. Matt is a former instructor in the Civic Education Department at Baylor University, where he taught leadership and service learning courses.
Matt earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Master of Science in Education from Baylor University.
Matt currently serves on the One-to-One Institute Board and National Advisory Council for the Global Scholars Diploma. He is a former board member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills serving as both vice chair and treasurer. He has served on the Texas Governor’s Advisory Council for Mentoring (Governors Bush and Perry), as well as advisory councils on after-school programming for the National Mentoring Partnership and the National League of Cities. |