Matt leads Vital Ground’s print and digital outreach with an emphasis on engaging, science-based storytelling that champions conservation. He holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College in Minnesota and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. As a Wyss Conservation Scholar, Matt interned for Vital Ground during grad school before becoming a full-time member of the communications team.
Matt grew up in the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts and learned to love the outdoors while exploring the woods and waters of the Northeast with his family and Scout troop. He has spent much of his adulthood in the West, developing a strong land ethic during many seasons in his twenties serving as a backcountry ranger and outdoor educator at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. Matt’s writing has appeared in High Country News, Whitefish Review and The Artist’s Field Guide to Yellowstone and he edited the environmental literary magazine Camas while in grad school at UM. He lives in Missoula, where he explores the surrounding wildlands in all seasons, plays ultimate frisbee and cheers on the Boston Red Sox from afar.