Matt Sears
CHIEF OF PARTNERSHIPS
Matt believes public education holds the promise of being the greatest equalizer for our communities and has dedicated two decades to working with public school students, teachers, principals, and community leaders.
Teaching for seven years at Hillside and New Tech high schools, Matt was honored as Durham Public Schools' Teacher of the Year in 2008. After a Fulbright experience teaching in southern India, Matt moved into school improvement coaching, with consulting work across North Carolina and with national networks of schools. Matt served as the Director of Educational Programs at Duke TIP starting in 2017, and led in the Durham community for over eight years as a member of the DPS School Board, serving as Vice-Chair in 2022 and 2023.
Matt is proud of working with neighborhood schools, including organizing neighbors to invest in and support his children's neighborhood Lakewood Elementary School--one of DPS' Community Schools.
Matt studied mathematics and computer science at Purdue University, earning his B.S. before completing his Masters of Arts in Teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill. Matt and his wife have three children attending DPS elementary and middle schools. Matt is conversationally fluent in Spanish, and enjoys gardening, tennis, golf and traveling with his family.