Matthew is originally from Beverly Hills, Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in English. He moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans where he had taught sixth grade through the Teach For America program. Here in Southern California, he has been working in various realms of the educational and ministerial realms while also working on a music career as a singer, songwriter and composer. Darcie, his wife who is originally from Pittsburgh, is a middle school special education teacher and the two of them have been Sunday School volunteers with Hollywood Presbyterian Church for more than five years. They are also parents to an energetic little 2 year old, Charlotte. Matthew came to truly know Christ after a long period of seeking and questioning. After being raised Catholic and falling away for many years, it would be a series of incarcerated men and youth he met while volunteering in Detroit area prisons and juvenile detention centers that would restart him on his path. In New Orleans, he was invited to church by some of his students’ families, where he continued to learn more, even though he thought he was going just to hear some “great Gospel music”. These touchstone experiences, combined with the solid foundation his Catechism provided and the prayerful moments he spent playing his heart out on the piano as a child, would finally touch his heart deeply and reveal the living Christ to him. His role as City Director of DOOR Hollywood allows him to walk alongside folks as they seek to find the face of God here in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and he loves to build partnerships between communities that, based on societal norms, rarely find space to interact and connect.